Shades of Grey
by Mushmallow62
Summary: SuigetsuxOC. Sasuke has almost got his cell ready; he just needs one more to complete it; and that someone is an old friend. The only question is, how will his team take to this person? And do they have a unique ability?
1. Chapter 1

The Hebi cell were now beginning to search for Itachi Uchiha, or at least that was what 3 members of the team had thought. After all, Sasuke had his four man cell of members from Orochimaru's experiments, now he just needed to avenge his family.

Instead Karin, Juugo and Suigetsu were surprised when Sasuke lead them to an old, abandoned medical centre. As they walked in, Karin looked around in disgust; the walls were crumbling, the place hadn't been cleaned in a good while, and who would, or could, live here?

"How can anyone want to work here?" The red haired girl said, eyeing the broken windows that looked ready to just break at any second.

"It's not by choice dearie," An old female voice said behind them.

They turned to look at her; and old woman, who probably should have been in a village surrounded by her grandchildren, and possible her great grandchildren by the looks of her, and telling them stories of what used to be; was standing there, hunched over and obviously not completely stable on her feet any more since she shuffled when she walked.

"An Uchiha… Not many left from what I heard," She mumbled as she looked at Sasuke, cranking her neck up slightly to get a better look at the raven haired boy.

"Where is it?" Sasuke ignored the comment; no point in telling the old crone that he was the only one left… Not including Itachi; and the woman smiled slightly, showing her missing teeth, which was most of them.

"The last one…" She turned and shuffled away, gesturing with her wrinkled, bony hand for them to follow her.

"What's with this old crone?" Karin asked Sasuke as they walked along; she didn't lower her voice, assuming that the old crone wouldn't be able to hear her.

"You are a rude young lady," The old woman snapped at her, as fast as a snake turned her head round to glare at the red haired girl; "Thinking I can't hear because I'm old?" The Old woman began to shake her head and mutter under her breath about the youth of today.

"But who is it?" Suigetsu asked, having enjoyed Karin being thoroughly put down, he wanted to know what the point of the visit to this place was. He didn't like it, it just reminded him of being back in the lab, stuck in that tube for so long.

"An old Uchiha friend," Sasuke told them, continuing to follow the crone.

"Why here?" Juugo asked, confused as to why a friend of the Uchiha clan would be in a crumbling medical hospital.

"Not out of choice," Sasuke repeated the words of the old crone.

"What does that…?" Karin began, confused at how an 'old friend' would be in a medical hospital; but trailed off when they entered a laboratory.

In the centre of the room was a large tube; inside, elevated by chains on the wrists and neck, as well as her ankles was a young woman. The water kept her in an induced coma; which gently moved her dark purple hair about, her ivory skin was nearly covered in a black cat suit.

"An experiment," Suigetsu said quietly, thinking how he had also been entrapped in a tube. The only difference was that he became water while in it and wasn't changed up, or kept unconscious.

"Exactly, this place is falling apart; they have abandoned this place… Ever since he returned…" The old crone trailed off, she didn't need to say any more; it was obvious that the hospital was falling apart and that the experiemtn had been left behind, the men who had run the place valued their own lives first and foremost.

"Why didn't you free her?" Karin looked at the woman with an eyebrow raised, wondering why the old crone hadn't free this girl before now.

"She's been in there for some time, I have no idea how she will react. And what if she decided to go on a killing spree? No where would be safe," The crone argued, gesturing to herself; meaning that she might not be alive if she had done it.

"That's why we're here?" Juugo looked to Sasuke, who had already drawn his sword and moved towards the glass tube.

"Back away now," The old crone advised the three as Sasuke shattered the glass with his sword.

The water rushed out, and quickly soaked Sasuke as it poured out, but it came to a puddle at the other's feet.

Now the girl was only suspended by the chains on her ankles and wrists; though her eyes remained closed.

The red haired girl looked surprised as she looked at the unconscious girl in the broken tube, "She's… Not dead?" She narrowed her eyes, the chakra was there, but it was faint; it appeared to be growing; almost as though it had been repressed when she had been inside the tube.

"Let's just get her out," Suigetsu walked into the shattered tube, focusing on his arm to change strength to help Sasuke break the chains that kept her in the tube as Juugo came over to catch her. The tallest boy walked out of the broken tube and placed her on a table, backing away from her slowly; unsure whether she was actually alive or not, regardless of what Karin had said.

"She's still breathing, just give her a moment," The old crone told them but never took her eyes off the girl, noticing that she was slowly opening her eyes, and wincing at the brightness that she was unaccustomed to.

Blinking, she slowly sat up looked at them, confusion evident in her grey eyes as she tried to figure out what was going on and who were these three teenagers in front of her.

"Youki," At the sound of her name, she turned and looked at the raven haired young man to her right.

_Uchiha._She thought in her head, and noted the crone was behind the tall teen.

"I'm surprised you're still here. I figured you would have left with the rest of them," Youki looked at the crone, but knew that Sasuke wasn't one to be ignored, so she ran a hand through her hair and sighed; "You're after something," She looked directly at Sasuke now, after quickly glancing at the members of his team.

"I want you to join us," He stated bluntly.

"To?"

"Kill Itachi,"

"Uchiha's always did have a funny way of dealing with things," The old crone commented and shook her head.

Youki raised an eyebrow, but said nothing; but felt that the girl with red eyes watched them talk, glaring at her; though jealousy was rolling through her veins.

How does this girl know Sasuke?

The purpled haired girl looked once more at the crone; "Why did you stay?"

It was a reasonable question, after all everyone else who had worked there had left once they heard that someone could possibly be heading towards them, since they might have had information that was required.

"How could I leave?" She laughed, once more showing her lack of teeth; "Where would I go?"

Youki didn't argue; it was true, where could she have gone? A village was unlikely to take an old woman in, especially someone like her.

Instead she slowly began to stand up; it had been so long since she had been let out, gravity felt very… odd to her now. It shouldn't take her long to get used to it though.

"How do you feel?" Juugo asked her, cautiously watching her.

She studied him; blonde hair, well built and tall. What kind of ninja would he be?

"I'm all right," She told him, allowing the dizziness to pass and getting used to the gravity as she finally stood up on her own two feet.

"The sooner you all leave the better," The old crone advised them, keeping a close eye on Youki as she swayed slightly.

"Why?" Karin looked at the crone wearily, sure she had helped them, but what reason had she to stay in this crumbling place?

"The alarm was set off," Youki replied for her; "There will probably be guard's coming here to see what has happened,"

"We'll deal with them," Suigetsu told her and smirked; she noticed his shark like teeth, his violet eyes and pale skin; he was sure of himself and of his fighting abilities it would seem.

"You need them off," The old crone gestured to the remnants of her chains.

Suigetsu raised an eyebrow, not understanding until Sasuke had pulled out his sword and freed her from the excess chains.

"You're staying," Youki looked at the woman as the team started to leave.

"You expect me to travel quickly? Go now," She waved the five off, as if they were just annoying her; "I have spent my entire life here, I may as well die here,"

Before Youki could protest, the old crone created a jutsu and she was gone.

The group moved as quickly as they could; however Youki found that the silver haired Mist Nin required breaks to rehydrate. Which was annoying to some member's of the cell; or more to the point the red haired girl called Karin; Youki found it rather useful after all she had been unconscious for some time in that tube, she need the extra breaks to get used to being able to move properly again.

It also didn't escape her notice that Karin had instantly disliked her; although whether it was because she preferred to be the only female in the group or something else; Youki had no idea.

It was when they were having another break however that she had decided to ask the silver haired Mist Nin; Suigetsu; about Karin's dislike to her. Since it appeared that the red haired girl didn't appear to like him much either; although it appeared to be a mutual feeling. The two sat down near the river, so that they could refill there flasks as well; though Juugo and Karin had gone off to get fire wood, and Sasuke had gone to get some food.

"How can Karin just dislike people instantly?" Youki asked him; straight to the point, which surprised the Mist Nin.

Suigetsu grinned as he spoke; "She hates you. Since you're a friend of Sasuke; she see's you as competition for our _leader_,"

"We're not friends," Youki clarified; "Our families used each other for there own ends, that's all,"

They became silent; but Suigetsu, as Youki was starting to learn, liked to have some conversation flowing.

"Why did they experiment on you?"

She looked at him, unsure how she should answer. However she could tell that he didn't mean it to be a blunt and direct question, he just wasn't tactful.

Suigetsu was giving up that question and was ready to start talking about something else when Youki finally answered;

"I'm just an average shinobi,"

He raised an eyebrow, interested. So she wasn't like Sasuke, not part of a special bloodline, or even strong in any way that would make her unique.

"I was decent at what I did; not perfect like the Uchiha clan; but reasonable enough. However unlike the rest of my family or even the rest of my class; I had an…. Ability, I guess…" She looked over at the swordsman who looked intrigued; "I was able to get premonitions. I could easily force see certain things that were going to happen. At first I just ignored it; but over time the teachers began to notice…. They told my clan, who were happy enough, since it gave me an edge over those I fought."

She paused to look at the Mist Nin, who looked interested in what she was saying;

"My family were interested in my… Ability to see the future, Niko was probably the only one who never harassed me about it," She smiled slightly; "That was the old woman back at the hospital,"

Suigetsu was surprised; "Why didn't she…"

"Old being one of them. I was surprised that she would even stay behind. After all I was unconscious, so not much use to her if something had happened," Youki informed him; "The rest of my family kept testing me; they found that I was only able to foresee certain things, and that anything could change my vision. That's why I was in there, they wanted to have someone who could foretell the future to them, and be all knowing about it. From what I can tell, nothing has changed; all their experiments were a waste of time,"

She became silent; thinking about all the experiments that she had been put through and wondering why her gift didn't work directly for her own benefit.

"What about you?" She inquired; "How did you meet Sasuke?"

Suigetsu rubbed his neck; "Orochimaru experimented on me… So did Karin," His eyes narrowed when he mentioned her name; "I'm just here 'cause Sasuke set me lose,"

She nodded; her outfit had remained the same, the black cat suit was comfortable; though she did want to change as there were too many memories from it that she wanted to leave behind; though they were getting close to a village which Sasuke had said they would go to prepare for battle

She looked thoughtful, and he spoke; .

"You know, Juugo isn't too bad, if his mood changes… Then Sasuke can deal with that. He's just quiet,"

"All right," Youki looked at him, smiling inside her head; he really liked to fill the silence; but she had been thinking about Juugo, how quiet he was and yet you got the impression that he should be rather… Aggressive.

"Karin – Don't trust her,"

She nodded; "Don't worry,"

"Don't worry?" Juugo came towards them and began to fill up his own flask with water.

Suigetsu moved from where he was sitting to fill up his flasks as well, since he had finished them both as they had been sitting there.

"Where's Karin?" Youki asked the blonde.

"Probably out stalking Sasu…" Before Suigetsu could finish a fist went through his head, causing water to fall all over as the Mist Nin managed to disengage the blow.

"You bastard!" Karin yelled pulling her fist back as Suigetsu's head pulled it self back together.

"Bitc…"

"You're upsetting Juugo," Youki warned them, but her eyes never left the blonde haired man, who was slowly having the black ink of the curse mark over part of his skin.

Karin and Suigetsu tensed up; ready for a fight, if Sasuke didn't arrive soon then they would have a lot of trouble on their hands.

"_**Kill**_…" Juugo said and half his face covered in the curse mark.

"Where's Sasuke?" Suigetsu looked at Karin, who looked flustered.

"J... Just give me a minute," Karin stuttered, focusing on the Uchiha's chakra; "He won't get here in time!"

"Great," The swordsman was ready; the only problem was he wasn't completely sure he could just hold off Juugo. Killing him yes, but holding him off?

"_**I want to kill**_…" Juugo had to look of blood lust in his eyes.

Youki stood in front of the blonde; much to Suigetsu's surprise.

"You don't know what you're dealing with," He tried to warn her.

_Let her try__… She can't calm Juugo down, only Sasuke can… He'll just kill her._ Karin thought gleefully, but then she sensed something; "Sasuke is almost here!"

Juugo moved quickly, ready to punch the dark haired woman, who quickly ducked as Suigetsu blocked another blow with his sword.

"We'll keep him busy then," He stated as he parried Juugo's attacks, and Youki managed to distract him with some fire attacks.

Juugo focused more on Suigetsu, seeing him as the biggest threat; and was ready to strike again when a male voice called out;

"Juugo,"

Suigetsu, Karin and Youki turned to the voice, to see Sasuke standing there and the blonde haired young man returned to normal, his curse mark receding back.

"We have everything?" Sasuke asked them, as if nothing had happened.

"Yea," Karin answered, her affection toward the young Uchiha getting bigger after what he just did.

"Let's go," He told them, and began to walk away.

They continued to move on for a few more hours and finally reaching the village that they were after. It wasn't pretty to look at; in fact everywhere looked the same.

"We'll need to get supplies," Sasuke told them; "Youki, you and Karin go and get some medical supplies; Juugo and Suigetsu can get some more food,"

They all nodded and moved away; Suigetsu and Juugo entered a market place, Juugo carefully examined the food on offer; they had to make sure the food would last for a fairly long time and wouldn't go off quickly.

"You seem tense," He stated as he picked up some food.

The Water Nin looked surprised, but grinned; "Heh, I don't trust Karin,"

"Why would she have tried to fight me?" Juugo changed the subject, Suigetsu talking… or bitching rather about Karin wasn't his idea of fun, in fact it would probably just make him go back to his rage mode.

"Distract you, until Sasuke arrived," The Mist Nin corrected.

"She couldn't have known that…"

"There's a reason she's with us," The water Nin reminded him; "Not just because her family and Sasuke's families were friends. She can see… Into the future,"

"See into the future?" The blonde repeated sounding sceptical.

"Yea, nothing that directly affects her," He shrugged; "from what she said, but she probably saw Sasuke arriving in time,"

"You're worried about her," Juugo commented, noting how Suigetsu was a bit tenser when they talked about Youki.

"Tch, she's better company than that red haired bitch…"

Juugo rolled his eyes; he knew better; or rather; he should have known better. However he wondered if Youki could predict that Suigetsu appeared to be a bit… Attached to her. Not that he was an expert, but if he was given a clue, surely being tense just because she was in the company of Karin was a big enough clue?

As the two males were talking, Karin was with Youki; glaring at the other girl.

_She's just an experiment, like Suigetsu._ She thought to herself; _Sasuke has better taste._

Youki could feel the other girl's eyes on her, but she ignored them.

"How could you possibly know Sasuke?"

Now the dark haired seer looked over at Karin, and saw jealousy clearly in those red eyes.

"Our families used to work together,"

"And what's your clan's name?" Karin tried to sound casual; not realising that Youki had seen through her act already, that she wanted to know what her clan's special jutsu was.

"Doesn't matter," Youki said to her, picking up the bandages they would probably need, and also looking at the medicine that could be required.

The two became quiet, Karin seething over Youki's refusal to name her clan and she knew full well that Sasuke wouldn't tell her it either; as he probably wouldn't see the point in the rest of them knowing Youki's clan's name; after all they didn't know Karin's clans name.

_I'm __different; my village was wiped out…_ Karin thought to herself.

People stayed away from the two; not because they radiated evil, but because of the tension being so thick between them that people rather avoid them than be caught in any cross fire that may happen.

"You've automatically dislike me because of Sasuke," Youki said suddenly.

It had been on her mind for a while, ever since Suigetsu told her in fact, and as they were out together she decided now was the best time to ask. This opportunity might not present itself again, and she knew that it would just annoy her later if she didn't take this chance.

Karin looked at her in surprise; "So?"

"You also dislike Suigetsu and Juugo," Youki pointed out; "Juugo scares you,"

"Huh, I'm here for my own reasons," Karin snapped at her; "I don't need _experiments_ getting involved with my motivation of helping Sasuke out,"

The two had paid for their purchases and moved to where they would meet the rest of the team, at a local park. Juugo and Suigetsu were already there, with the Mist Nin drinking slowly from his flask.

Karin said nothing as she sat down on a bench; trying to act like she and Youki hadn't argued before they met up with the two males.

"Saskue won't be back yet," Youki stated; "I'm going to find some other stuff," She looked around and began to move away from the group, not seeing Karin glare at her back or Suigetsu smirking.

"Is she right?" Suigetsu asked Juugo, looking at the birds on the blonde man's shoulder.

"He's talking to someone, they won't go close, because of the cats," Juugo replied.

It wasn't a straight answer; but it would do.

The seer wasn't gone for long, she was back in five minutes; evidently she had noticed a clothes shop somewhere when she was with Karin. It was still black, cropped trousers with her ninja shoes; and t-shirt.

"He'll be back soon," She sat down next to the two males.

"Suigetsu told me you can see the future," Juugo said.

Youki smiled and nodded; "Yea, and it can change rather quickly as well, it's not exactly fool proof,"

She turned her head and saw Sasuke walking over to them, they all stood up; ready to leave. Putting her cloak back on, she placed the spare medicines into her pouch and they all followed the Uchiha out of the village.


	2. Chapter 2

The team continued to travel as they had done before; every so often Suigetsu would sit on a rock, and take his flask out of its pouch to drink, letting the other's know in his unique way that he needed a break.

"Something that should take a few days is going to take us a few weeks," Karin complained after yet another break, folding her arms as she looked at the Mist Nin.

Suigetsu glared at her for a moment, before continuing to drink his water.

"It also means the Akatsuki can catch us," Sasuke added, as he leaned against a tree.

Karin smirked at the Mist Nin in triumph as he stared angrily back, gulping down his water.

"If they do, it would make our life easier though," Youki pointed out, sitting down in the shade near Juugo; "Means they would bring the fight to us,"

Sasuke looked thoughtful and then nodded; "Either way, we're after Itachi, anyone in our way…"

"Will die," The Mist Nin finished, putting his flask away and stood up.

"We'll split up," Sasuke decided; "If we find a member of the Akatsuki follow them, but don't fight them,"

The group left, each member on there own, although for a time Karin had begun stalk Sasuke; who eventually told her to go on her own.

The raven haired boy wasn't stupid, he knew that Karin was attracted to him; but he was pretty sure it wasn't actually himself that she was attracted to, just what she had seen and heard. In knowing that; Sasuke wasn't interested in her, after all what was the point when she knew nothing about him?

However she was a good asset to the team, very few shinobi had the ability to locate certain charka like she could; so he was willing to put up with her infatuation of him. So long as it didn't get in the way of him fighting Itachi.

There was a lot of commotion in the small village that Karin was in. There was a massive explosion that came a good few miles off, and from what Karin sensed was two charkas; one was Sasuke's and the other… It didn't matter; the only problem was that Sasuke's charka had vanished.

The red haired girl wasn't the only one in Team Snake to have noticed the explosion, the other three had as well, and they all ran to the same spot, meeting each other as they did so; until they came upon a giant snake, Sasuke and Suigetsu.

Sasuke had fought one of the Akatsuki, he won; but he had underestimated his enemy.

"You're the one who killed Ororchimaru?" Karin said in apparent disgust, unable to believe that her master had been defeated by this bloodied boy; _He looks rather hot all beat up like that._

"He was also sick, I had the advantage," Sasuke corrected her; slowly began to stand up.

Once he was on his own two feet again they moved back to the village, with Juugo keeping a close eye on the Uchiha to make sure he didn't fall.

They got two rooms and Karin began to bandage the wounds, cleaning them as she went. The four decided that Suigetsu and Youki would go and look around the village, to get some extra supplies and to make sure no one was following them.

The two walked together, seeing no sense in splitting up; after all if they were going to be in a fight, which could be quiet likely after what happened to Sasuke; they figured it would be better to have two of them; one could fight and the other could raise the alarm.

It was odd, for the two to be back among a village, Suigetsu just found it odd, his own village wasn't so… Peaceful.

There was more hustle and bustle; and considering where his village was, there was usually a lot of fish guts around. Of course when he went on missions he had also enjoyed being away from his village; to be in a different place from where he lived, to see how these villages survived; and part of him found it odd that, certain villages were able to survive without the need of a title to scare others; like the Village of the Bloody Mist.

He was proud of his village, he won't deny that; but sometimes when you tell people which village you are from, they are put off. The ninja's that you are meant to fight usually give up, without a fight and it infuriated Suigetsu. What was the point in the missions if they didn't get to fight?

"You know," He began, getting his mind off the past; "We don't need to go back, just yet,"

Youki glanced at him, the village was safe, and no one was after them, luckily.

"Sasuke won't be awake, and besides are you actually ready to go back?" He added.

"I suppose so," Youki agreed; "Since we are here, we might as well eat,"

They happened to be outside a noodle bar; they hadn't eaten properly in a while either.

Suigetsu looked at her and smirked; "I would have figured you to argue with me,"

"I think I'll be insulted by that," Youki told him; "I'm not Karin. Sasuke was badly injured and he needs time to heal; besides it's good to get away from the group. Especially since this is a _break_, so to speak; though you don't have to eat with me,"

"Nah," He said still smirking; "this place will be fine,"

They sat down and ordered their food, Youki looked around the place, it was pretty simple, but she could smell the off that was cooking not too far away; she was more hungry than she thought.

_It's been too long since I have actually been out and about in a village._ She thought to herself, having enjoyed the sights and sounds of the village life, even though it wasn't her own.

"You know," Suigetsu said thoughtfully, with a smile; "People could think we're on a date,"

She just looked at him, unsure how to take that comment; after a moment she spoke; "Does it matter what they think?" She noted the look he gave her; "Are we on a…?"

"You want to be?"

"No," She told him, noting that the mist nin looked… Disappointed? _Unlikely, _she dismissed it; "The mission that Sasuke has needs to come first. It's why we're all here in the first place,"

"Tuch, a date _not_ a relationship," Suigetsu pointed out to her.

"You don't see them being the same?"

He shook his head; "Forget it, at least Karin is amusing,"

Youki glared at him, the comment didn't hurt but to be put down by Karin? That was a rather low comment.

"Since she would just end up punching you?"

"Yea, it's good to get a raise," He smirked, noting the look in her eyes; he had gotten a rise out of her, although she was trying to hold it back.

"Isn't she also the reason why you haven't gone back?"

That wiped the smirk off his face, and she had a point; Karin was good to annoy, but there was only so many punches that the Mist Nin could take.

"All right," He held his hands up in surrender.

She looked at him, _He gave up? Just like that?_ That was confusing, since he was trying to get a rise out of her like he normally does with Karin that for him to surrender like that was a bit… Odd.

"I don't want to be around Karin, sure it's fine to get a rise, funny when she does actually hit me for something that is minor and other people could shrug off; after all when she hits me I don't feel anything," He shrugged; "I kinda forget about Juugo and his… Killer mode, if we fight too much he goes nuts and Sasuke is the only one who can actually deal with it, and then he goes and tells me off," The Mist Nin grinned; "Not that I regret getting under her skin,"

Youki started to laugh; the silver haired ninja appeared to be just like a child, it was like he wanted the attention that he apparently didn't get when he was an experiment.

"You know, I'm not sure how that is funny," He looked at her, puzzled at what she was laughing at.

"It's just… If you put it into a family context, Sasuke is the…"

Suigetsu got it, and he started to laugh as well; by this time their food had arrived and they slowly managed to calm down enough to eat.

"You're better company anyway," He told her, slurping up his noodles; "At least we can stop and eat… "

They became silent while eating; however the Mist shinobi, as Youki had learned, wasn't known to remain silent for long, even if he was eating.

"Weren't you a Sasuke fan girl?"

Youki coughed on her drink, surprised by the question; "Why would you think that?"

"It's Sasuke," He replied with a shrug, wondering what her response would be and partly worried about it too.

"No. Definetly not," She told him firmly.

"How's that?"

"His childhood was gone before it was meant to, he took a path for seeking revenge, and he's still on it… What would he actually be like without revenge to keep him going?" She smiled, even when she had been part of the Leaf Village she had never been a Sasuke fan girl; "Speaking of childhoods, what about yours?"

Suigetsu knew what she was doing, drawing the conversation away from Sasuke because then they would end up talking about the mission and that was why they were still away from the rest of the team, to not talk about the mission.

"I was going to become one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen," He paused, in case she was going to interrupt, but she remained silent; "That isn't going to happen now,"

"Why not?"

"Heh," He smiled; "I wasn't doing it for myself,"

"What about your village?"

"What about _your_ village?"

"I… I don't know," Youki told him; "My clan left the village just after Sasuke's clan was killed; so I don't exactly have any real attachment to it," She looked at him, challenging him to comment on it.

He gave in; "I heard about all the other villages around our's when I was there," By 'there' he meant Orochimaru's lab; "It was odd hearing about how they all trained. Not that I minded how I was trained; I just realised that so many villages didn't do as we do; and that they all managed to survive pretty well. I don't plan on going back; I'd rather die for something that I want," He sounded firm in saying that; as if there was a reason why he didn't want to go back; but Youki didn't pry, he obviously didn't want to say why.

"Why join up with Sasuke?"

"He got me out," Suigetsu grinned; "Besides, it means I can achieve my goal a bit easier; since we're all just using each other,"

Youki agreed with that, everyone that Sasuke picked had their own agenda's; but they were willing to be flexible, since Sasuke was the strongest out of them all and the one who recruited them for his own cause.

"What about you?" Suigetsu asked her.

She looked thoughtful; "I want to find my clan, to find out why I was the one…"

"Revenge,"

"No revenge, just why," She smiled though, letting him know that revenge could be on the cards later.

"Heh, you'll want revenge,"

"I just don't understand how they can use one of their own… Like a lab rat…" She became silent, her anger evident, even if she didn't vocal it.

Suigetsu could easily see it, it made her look different, her grey eyes were cloudy rather than clear and it was odd that over the past week or so that he hadn't seen her angry before; he hadn't thought that she could be angry.

Slowly, he placed his hand onto her own, not sure what exactly would happen, but hoping that it was right rather than just watch her being angry; and if she hit him, at least she'd get the anger out and it wouldn't hurt him anyway.

"Thanks," She said softly, the cloudy appearance in her eyes slowly disappearing as she calmed down.

He hadn't thought what he was meant to do now; since Karin would have hit him and he could have teased her after; but this?

What was he meant to do?

"You're all right?"

Youki laughed, trying to shrug off the small incident and feeling a bit embarrassed; "Yea, sorry,"

"You know, if Orochimaru was still alive, I'd be hunting him down about now," He told her; "I was supposed to be one of the Seven, instead I got stuck in a tube for that snake to learn about…" Trailing off, he remembered everything that he had felt that day he was captured, and it showed in his own eyes, as he became tense.

She looked carefully at his hand, taking his other one into her own; they were experiments, they were not the same as everyone else, their experiences had changed them.

Sasuke's cell was a rag-tag team, with none of them being the same as they were when they were younger.

"We'd better get back," She said, noticing that it was dusk and that they had been gone for a lot longer than she had expected.

"What took you so long?" Karin snapped when they entered the room.

Sasuke was sitting up, but he still looked drained and in need of rest.

"Well?" The red haired girl stared at them, annoyed that they left the three of them here for so long, without any report of what was going on.

"Aw… Did we interrupt you and Sas…?" Suigetsu began, only to get Karin's fist to his head and through it since he became water.

"How are you feeling?" Youki asked, kneeling next to Sasuke and just ignoring the two bickering shinobi's behind her.

The raven haired boy smirked, knowing why the Mist Nin and the Seer had taken so long; "Better. Take it you enjoyed you time out?"

"It was nice to be able to wander about… Although it is weird to be back in a village; even if it is for a limited time," Youki shrugged.

"No threats?"

"No, everything was safe," She assured him.

"Oh, so just you two, hmm?" Karin narrowed her eyes and smirked at Suigetsu.

"We had dinner too," The Mist Nin added with a smile, noting Karin's annoyed look.

"Where's Juugo?" Youki asked, to change the subject and to make sure the two didn't start a fight.

"He decided to go to bed early," Sasuke told her, and gave a small nod of thanks for stopping the inevitable fight.

"We didn't find anyone, I think we should keep a watch anyway," She suggested.

"Yea Sasuke, you're still weak," Kain told the Uchiha; _Why did she have to come up with that idea?_

Sasuke looked stubborn, but he knew they were right; he wasn't a hundred percent yet.

"At least if one of us stayed the others could be alerted easily," Youki added.

Sasuke nodded and before Karin could say anything the Mist Nin spoke; "I'll stay first,"

The red haired girl glared, but said nothing; instead she left the room.

"Juugo can go after you," Sasuke told him and he nodded; "You two aren't playing about with Karin are you?"

Suigetsu looked insulted; "I'm playing nice, not my fault she doesn't like us being friends," Youki looked at him in surprise.

"Good,"

With that she left the room, only to be confronted by Karin.

"He's lying,"

"How could you know?" Youki asked.

"I used him for experiments," She reminded her and smiled; "You're not a friend, he doesn't have friends. He came from the Village of the Mist, they can't afford to care for anyone,"

With that said, Karin walked away leaving Youki to wonder if what she had said was true.

_Ignore her._ She thought to herself, she wasn't a fool, she knew all about the Mist village, mainly by its reputation. Sighing, she went to bed.

"Did you mean what you said?" Sasuke asked the Mist Nin.

"Hehe, I think so," Suigetsu told him, sitting against the wall with his sword beside him.

Sasuke said nothing, in fact, he appeared to be asleep.

The Mist Nin took a drink of water and thought of all the questions that were now bubbling up in his head; did he think of Youki as a friend? Had he changed since childhood? Did he want someone he could depend on to watch his back like he did…?

He blinked back at that one, it wasn't worth going into.

But he had said it, and she certainly was a lot… Saner than the rest of them.

Juugo had split personalities; one half wanted peace and being part of nature, while the other half wanted to kill, pretty much kill anything and everything.

Karin didn't need to be said. As for Sasuke? There was a man who was obsessed with revenge, it seemed all he had ever lived for was revenge; and part of him wondered how the Uchiha would behave if he didn't need to go out and get revenge.

For him and Youki to be friends it could happen; it would be nice to know that someone was going to watch his back. It had been too long since he had known that feeling.

As he continued to think he noticed the door opening and reached for his sword; but it was Juugo who came through.

"You taking over?"

"Yea, Youki said I was to relieve you during the night," Juugo said softly.

"Good," Sasuke said suddenly and opened his eyes to see the other two looking at him, surprised.

"Who do you want to…?" Suigetsu began to ask.

"I've slept for long enough," Juugo told them, Sasuke just nodded and Suigetsu left the room.

He stretched and as he entered the room he noticed that Juugo slept in-between the two girls, but there was only three futons.

"You know you lied to her," Karin said, not bothering to quieten her voice.

"When?" Suigetsu wasn't in the mood to play games with her right now, he wanted to sleep.

"When you told her that you were friends," Karin smirked; the moonlight hit her glasses, he knew the look she was giving him.

It was the same look she used to give him when he was stuck in that tube, and she could experiment on him; at the time he couldn't do anything about it.

Now? He wasn't in a tube any more.

"You know nothing," He told her, wanting to punch her but managing to refrain himself from doing so.

"Really? Formerly from the Mist Village; everyone knows how they train their ninja's. You can't afford to have friends, you wouldn't know _how _to be a friend," The red head was scathing.

"_Formerly_. I can have friends," He actually wanted to throw her out of the building, preferably via the window; after all she wasn't that important to the team. Sasuke would forgive him, just this one time.

"Oh really?" She challenged him, and just as Suigetsu was about to go through with his thought…

"Would you two just go to sleep?" Youki told them, sitting up and glaring at them; "You know we might not get to sleep like this for a long time,"

"I guess so," Suigetsu rubbed the back of his neck.

Karin just turned away and lay back down.

Once the two settled down, they relaxed, upon hearing Karin snoring gently Youki spoke quietly.

"You can't let her get to you,"

He was laying on Juugo's futon, figuring it to be the best bet to sleep and knew Juugo wasn't going to come back in and demand his bed back.

"Why would you rise to her?"

"It's not her place to tell me how I should be, that I was from the Mist; but now? I'm on my own," He told her.

"You're a ronin," She said and closed her eyes.

"Yea…" He didn't know what possessed him, but he reached out and stroked her hair; which caused her to flinch so he cupped her cheek instead.

Without opening her eyes, she smiled; "Night Suigetsu,"

Slowly, he removed his hand and closed his eyes; allowing sleep to take over.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning the Mist Nin woke up to find himself alone in the room. Karin and Youki's futon's were already rolled up neatly next to the pillow.

He sat up and stretched, since they were here; he might as well go relax and bathe, as Youki had said last night; they might not get to do this for some time.

Moving quickly, he fixed the futon and left the room to walk to the baths. Just as he was about to walk into the males part of the baths, he spotted Youki coming out of the women's section. She obviously had the same idea that he had; though she had gotten up earlier, she still looked a lot more relaxed than she did last night.

"Suigetsu," She said as she walked towards him, her hair still damp and pushed back.

"Morning," He said with a slight nod; "Is Sasuke awake?" He realised that she might not know, that she might have just gone to bathe first.

"Yea, he said he'll be down later,"

"Where are the others?"

"Juugo should be in," She gestured to the baths; "And I think Karin is keeping an eye on Sasuke,"

Suigetsu sniggered at that; _Keeping an eye?_ _About to ravish the injured Sasuke is more like it._

"Oh, you'd better get back," He said teasingly.

"Sasuke is stronger now; I don't think we'll need to stay here for another night," She added thoughtfully.

Upon saying that, the two went their separate ways; Suigetsu to the baths and Youki to check on Sasuke. She walked into the room and noted that Karin had gone.

"I told her to check around the village, to get some more supplies as well," Sasuke told her before she could ask.

"You're feeling better?"

"Yea," He nodded and slowly stood up, she didn't move over to help him, knowing full well that he would resent her for it and probably brush her off.

"Juugo and Suigetsu are already there," Youki carefully looked at him, he was getting stronger, but he wasn't a hundred percent healed.

"Stop worrying, I'm fine," He walked away from her, moving slowly as his muscles were stiff from lack of movement.

Youki just watched him leave the room, once he was out of sight she sat down and looked out of the window, wondering if she was actually Suigetsu's friend, or whether he had just said it to annoy Karin.

Her thoughts took her back to what she had thought about last night; he was from the Mist, however he had been gone from the village and its influences for a fair bit of time. Of course there were something's that don't leave a person just because they don't live there; since he would have been brought up with it all around him, not schooled.

What if he didn't know how friends were to each other? Though she did trail off and thought about when he touched her cheek – though she had flinched when she saw his hand coming to her hair, it had felt nice.

"What are you thinking?" A male voice made her focus back on where she was.

Her grey eyes scanned the room; she had let her thought preoccupy her when she should have kept her guard up. He managed to catch her unawares and if it had been an enemy she would have been dead by now.

She saw him by the door, pale skin, blue eyes and wet white hair.

He looked at her cautiously, with a smile.

"You know," He began, sitting down across from her; "If I had been Karin, I probably would have attacked. Luckily you got me,"

She smiled, stretched out her legs in front of her; "Yea, guess I am. Sasuke still…?"

"Was,"

She raised an eyebrow.

"It's Sasuke, only there for a short time, when I left he was fixing his bandages. Told us he didn't need help," He added; before he thought she would ask; "Juugo went to get some breakfast, and to kill some time,"

"He's stiff," Youki commented off handily.

"Very stiff," Suigetsu laughed, teasingly.

She shook her head; "You know I meant his muscles…"

"And here I thought Karin was obsessed,"

She felt a blush rising to her face, but she was laughing all the same; "Suigetsu…"

"If you notice him being… _stiff_ …" He trailed off, laughing too hard to finish the sentence.

The purple haired seer managed to calm herself down, still smiling; "It means that we can probably leave soon,"

"Good, then I can get the other sword," He said softly, that thought alone was enough to calm him.

She didn't say anything, just sat against the wall and leaned her head back.

"And you can help me to find them,"

She opened her grey eyes to look at him; "Perhaps,"

She continued to focus out of the window, she never did it before, too young to notice the beauty of her surroundings; and this view wasn't exactly brilliant either, in fact it was awful close up. Too many roofs of buildings were in the way; but if you looked into the distance you saw what was out there; a mountain range, with a light cover of snow, the lake that was to the far left…

"Youki,"

Her eyes focused back into the room and she looked over at the Mist Nin.

He smiled at her; "You're too quiet,"

She laughed, she hadn't expected that; "Odd thing to say,"

He moved to sit next to her; "But you are,"

"We're also ninja,"

"Not right now we're not,"

She realised that of course Suigetsu wouldn't fully understand how friendships worked and that it wasn't exactly something you could switch on and off.

"You're saying that we're not friends when this starts?" She asked him, and he just looked at her confused; "Suigetsu, you know how being friends works right?"

He never spoke, and she couldn't blame him; who wants to admit that they have no idea how to be a friend?

"Friends always look out for each other, whether they are on missions or not; being a ninja or not,"

"Twenty-four seven?"

"Yup,"

He remained silent after that, but of course it didn't last for long; "I'll learn,"

The two became silent, and the Mist Nin rested his head on her shoulder; since she didn't move away or even push him off, he gathered that this was okay.

Slowly he took a deep breath, just breathing in her scent; it was nice; but he had no idea what the different scents were, but he knew that he wasn't familiar with any of them. He was more used to the usual smells, blood, sweat…

"All right lovebirds,"

The two looked over to the door and saw Sasuke standing there, just smirking at them. His bandages were also loose, so Youki moved towards him and started to fix them up.

She took off the head bandage to make sure the wound was clean, and then began to re-wrap.

"You know I don't need people watching over me," Sasuke told her; ignoring Suigetsu for that moment.

If the Mist Nin was jealous or even annoyed, he never made it known. Perhaps it was because he had no idea who Youki would side with in a fight… Should that happen. Or maybe it was because he had no idea how this whole _friendship_ idea worked, or yet again, maybe he knew the boundaries that was there between friends and lovers?

"I know," Youki began, still fixing his other bandage; "But you do remember that there are two different groups after you,"

"I'll be fine,"

"Yes, because these wounds say that you are _fine_," Once she said that, the Uchiha looked surprised.

As was Suigetsu, who wondered why she worried so much? If he died, he died, not much they could do about that.

"You want to fight Itachi, which was why you created this cell. You won't be able to do that if other's kill you first,"

Sasuke stared at her; "What did you see?"

Youki moved away from him to sit by Suigetsu again.

"It won't be true; you know it's only a short time before it can come true… But Karin hasn't sensed anything…."

"How far along was it then?"

"I'm not sure… You face a blonde haired Leaf Nin,"

"Naruto," Sasuke said quietly and smirked; "And?"

"I'm not sure… My vision… Faded out. Almost like I wasn't there, not really,"

"It should be fine then, we'll just need to be careful," The raven haired boy left the room.

"Lovebirds?" Suigetsu asked her; he had heard it before, but not sure of it's meaning.

"A couple," She smiled, and noticed that the Mist Nin was also smiling;

_He's trying to make me feel better._

They remained silent though, relaxing before they would have to leave.

Juugo had joined them; Sasuke was once more resting on the futon, since it was decided that they would leave at night, there was no point in having the extra room when Sasuke was the only one still needing to rest.

They only needed Karin to return with the medical supplies.

"How long does it take to get medical supplies?" Suigetsu said; "We just needed a few extra things,"

"She'll be back," Juugo told him, calmly as a bird perched on his shoulder.

Youki was dozing as she sat against the wall, so was Sasuke in his futon.

"Damn girl," The Mist Nin started to stand up; "Juugo, can you behave while I'm gone?"

Youki opened her eyes; her vision had come quickly, and it was obvious that they had to leave soon, but why did she see a door coming down and water?

Before she could speak the door slammed down on Suigetsu;  
"Wake up Sasuke!" Karin yelled.

"What the hell?!" The Mist Nin cried out angrily.

Karin quickly got off and proceeded to tell Sasuke everything that she had sensed, as Suigetsu pushed the door off himself and stand up.

Once Karin had finished telling Sasuke everything; he nodded; "Everyone outside, we need to leave,"

They followed him out and walked out of the village calmly, not wanting to attract extra attention; though Juugo and Karin trailed behind slightly which the Seer found odd.  
Sasuke confirmed that it was more likely to be Kohnona village, considering there was a big group of them.  
As they followed the raven haired boy, it was clear that he knew exactly where they were going next.

"It's time for a break," Suigetsu told them, sitting on a tree stump and taking out his water flask.

"We'll never find Itachi like this," Karin complained.

Youki looked over at Sasuke, who leaned against a tree, he obviously didn't mind since the breaks hardly were long to begin with. If he did, he would have said something by now.  
It was a few minutes to get the Mist Nin rehydrated again and they moved on again.

This time they appeared to be nearing an abandoned temple; there were statues of Buddha, broken and some in tact.

"You guy's stay here," Sasuke ordered them.

They all looked at him; unsure of his plan.

"Don't follow me unless I say," He added and entered the cave that scared the temple ruins.

The group looked at each other.

"What was that about?" Suigetsu looked into the cave as he asked his question, wondering what just happened; why would Sasuke make this group to just go it alone?

"Must have found something," Juugo said softly, enjoying the peace the woodland gave to him.

"We should stay put, until he gets back," Youki told them and sat down.

"Who put you in charge?" Karin snapped at her; "Sasuke could be going into a trap,"

"Sasuke isn't stupid, and if it was a trap; then they would hardly let us stay out here in peace,"

The red haired girl was silent, she couldn't really argue with that.

"It's relaxing," Juugo commented.

"What? Waiting for Sasuke to return?" Suigetsu asked, but he smiled at the other male.

"This place..." Juugo began to explain.

"I guess it would be enjoyable, if we didn't have a mission to complete first," Youki interrupted; but knew what Juugo was feeling, it was relaxing and calming; she noticed how Karin was looking; "What is it?"

"There's another chakra,"

Without another word the group ran to the cave; it wasn't completely dark; there was small candles that lead the way to the base of the cave, where they found Sasuke standing on his own, with black feather's falling around him.

"I told you to wait," The raven haired boy told them.

"Karin sensed another chakra, we got worried," Suigetsu informed him.

"Feathers?" Karin looked at the black feather's that were falling around them.

Sasuke didn't speak, instead he left the cave and the other four followed him.

Once outside Youki spoke;

"It was Itachi, wasn't it?"

"Yea,"

"You fought him?" Juugo asked, as they continued to make there way out of the woodlands.

"No, it was more of a test... Now I need to find him," Sasuke informed them, sounding sure of himself.

"What will you do once he's dead?" Suigetsu asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I want to kill him first, I'll figure the rest later," Sasuke replied, looking ahead as they managed to get out of the woodlands.

"We've all joined you to help find Itachi," The Mist Nin stated.

"What of it?" Karin glared, but Sasuke listened patiently.

"Once he's dead, we have no reason to stick around,"

They all looked at him, surprised.

"I will stay with Sasuke," Juugo spoke first; no one questioned his reason's, they all knew why.

Suigetsu had already figured as much, Juugo would probably need to lock himself up to keep himself from going back into his blood-lust mode; but how Sasuke managed to do it, the Mist Nin would never know.

Karin remained silent, but he gathered that she too would remain with Sasuke, after all she didn't have anything else to do, and it would be safer for her to go with him than to go out on her own.

The he looked at Youki, who just looked back at him in question and he smirked.

"I'll be off looking for the other sword,"

"You and those stupid swords, the one you already have is too heavy for you," Karin snipped at him.

Suigetsu opened his mouth to make a scathing comment back; but Youki spoke;

"I'll just go with Suigetsu,"

Juugo and Karin both looked over at her in surprise, though Karin also looked relieved, while Suigetsu was taken aback and Sasuke just looked at her, but his face was masked over an emotion that might have come up once she said those words.

"However," Youki continued, ignoring the looks; "This is all just talk. We need Itachi dead,"

Sasuke smirked; "Exactly, and I know where to go,"

They all continued to follow, though Suigetsu slowed down to be walking next to Youki, since he had some things to ask her.

"You meant what you said?" He asked, wanting to clarify what she had said before.

She smiled slightly; "Only if you want me to help. Figured it would be easier to get the sword with someone else as backup,"

The Mist Nin nodded; "I'll help you then," He smirked; "Kill a bird with two stones,"

"Kill _two_ birds with _one_ stone," She corrected him.

"Whatever, the outcome is still the same," He told her with a slight wave of his hand.

"Just slightly," She teased him.

He was curious though at her choice; "Why not stay with Sasuke? After all your…"

Youki shook her head; "I can't help him. Fighting our enemies; of course. Stopping you and Karin from getting into a massive fight, yes; but actually helping him? I don't know where to start,"

He wasn't sure what she meant about helping Sasuke; what did she mean? He was already pretty strong…

She noticed his confused look; "Emotionally. What would Sasuke be like without revenge?"

It dawned on him; he looked at the rest of the team, who weren't paying attention to their conversation.

"That would be… Strange," Suigetsu agreed.

"Sasuke had made revenge _part_ of him, it's become part of his being," She said softly, her eyes darting ahead to make sure the others weren't listening; "Without it… I don't think he'll know what to do with himself,"

He moved a bit closer to her; not enough that he could bump into her, but enough space that she felt at ease that someone was letting her tell them how she felt about the whole situation; about how concerned she was for the Uchiha.

They all stopped, as they spotted Kisame; a blue skinned man, with gills and sharp teeth. His head band, once to show that he was from the Village of the Mist, had been scored through.

"Only Sasuke can go through, the rest of you have to wait here," He smirked at the other four.


	4. Chapter 4

Sasuke looked at the blue skinned man; he was very much from the Mist Village; and he noted that they all appeared to have the same trait, sharp, shark-like teeth.

Karin spoke up; "Sasuke, we can take him out and then go…"

Sasuke stared at Kisame, he wasn't lying; "Stay here," Upon saying that he began to run to where ever Itachi was waiting for him.

"So… Suigetsu, no longer a slave to Orochimaru," It was a statement rather than a question; and the Mist Nin glared at the elder.

Instead of speaking, however he took out his sword.

"Grave robbing once you're no longer a slave?" Kisame smirked, glancing at the sword that formerly belonged to Zazuba.

"You know these swords are passed down," Suigetsu snapped, his glare just as hard as before.

"To the chosen successor," Kisame reminded him, looking at the younger Mist Nin, contemplating; "What makes you think you're even a challenge to me?"

"Because…." Suigetsu smirked back at him and gestured to Kisame's own sword; "That sword will be mine," Once he said that he attacked, but Kisame was quick enough to dodge the blow.

"Brash as ever I see," Kisame commented and brought out his own sword to parry the next strike.

"Shouldn't we…" Juugo moved to help their team mate, but Karin stopped him.

"It's _his_ fight," Karin pointed out, while thinking to herself; _Let him get killed, he's out of his depth and it's rather amusing…_

Youki watched; it was obvious who the better swordsman was. Suigetsu was good, but Kisame knew his sword… It was two different powers going against each other.

Quickly she moved out of the way as the fight moved towards them; as did Juugo and Karin.

"It might be his fight, but we're a team," Juugo pointed out and went to help Suigetsu by trying to punch Kisame; who kicked him out of the way and then blocked Suigetsu's attack.

"He's mine," The Mist Nin growled at them as the swords parried against each other.

"He's good," Youki commented as they had to move out of the way again.

"Worried about your Suigetsu?" Karin sneered.

"He could be killed," Juugo noted, but his eyes remained focused on the two battling Mist Nin.

"He won't," Youki informed them, Juugo turned his head to look at her in surprise while Karin just raised an eyebrow; "Kisame isn't going for a killing blow, if he wanted to kill Suigetsu he would have done so by now,"

There was a pause in the battle, Kisame moved quickly, to the extent that the other 3 couldn't actually see him moving, slammed Suigetsu into the ground; turned to look at them with a smirk and then vanished.

Youki carefully ran over to Suigetsu as the other two looked at each other, wondering what had just happened to have Kisame just leave like that.

The Mist Nin slowly got up, wearily checking around, not completely sure if Kisame had left, or whether it was a trap he remained tense.

"Suigetsu," Youki said softly, he turned his head to look at her; "He's gone,"

Violet eyes scrutinised her, not sure that he could trust what she was saying, before he relaxed; putting down his sword and taking the flask from his hip, he began to drink.

She remained silent, the other two were wondering what was going on, but didn't interrupt. Once he had finished the water in that flask, he put it back and then began to talk; "He was toying with me,"

Youki remained silent, it was obvious to her that Kisame hadn't been serious when they had fought; if he had; Suigetsu would either be seriously injured or dead.

"He retreated, so we need to…" Youki started.

"Guys!" Juugo called over to them.

They all spotted a man wearing the Akatsuki cloak and an orange mask walking towards them; but they became tense, ready for a fight.

"You're leader has won," He told them and they all looked at him, startled; "Although he has been badly wounded as well," With that said, he began to walk away.

"Heh," Suigetsu stood up, put his sword back and began to follow the man.

The others began to follow as well, but they were cautious, they couldn't just suddenly trust this group, since they had wanted to kill Sasuke before!

They finally came upon Sasuke and his brother, both of them on the ground… Itachi was dead; the flies were starting to come over to him, while Sasuke was still alive, his blood oozing out of his wounds and Karin moved to quickly bandage them up.

"He'll live. He's a Uchiha after all," The masked man said softly.

Juugo went over and carefully picked Sasuke up, the man wearing the mask gestured for them to follow him. The tall boy looked at the others and saw Youki nod to go ahead.

"What if it's a trap?" Karin asked quietly, keeping an eye on Juugo and the masked man.

"What if it's not?" Youki countered; "Besides, how likely is it that they would have lead us to see Sasuke and then kill us?"

As it had transpired, the masked man was also an Uchiha; in fact he happened to be the first leader of the clan.

Madara.

As Sasuke was healing, he told him about what had actually transpired with his clan; including the role his older brother, Itachi had to play.

The team that Sasuke had created to help him hunt and kill his brother weren't in the room with him at that time, but that didn't mean that Madara didn't tell them what the Uchiha clan were like, or what the plans were. However, he had to let Sasuke know of them first; he was the leader of the group, and whatever Madara told him the rest of the cell would follow. At least he thought so.

"It's weird," Suigetsu finally spoke, as he and Youki stood outside the cave that became part of a hide out for the Akatsuki, watching the sun slowly begin to sink to the ground.

"Which part?" She shook her head; the whole concept of Madara's explanation was just… A lot to take in.

Itachi allowed Sasuke to live; and became the bad guy on purpose? Betraying his own kin because they were going to rebel?

Learning who Madara was as well…

"His brother left him on his own; but the village was happy to help raise Sasuke. It doesn't make a lot of sense," Suigetsu told her.

That's what Youki thought as well. Why would the village elders, who wanted to get rid of the rebellious Uchiha's; allow Sasuke to live? Of course she had another thought as well;

"Sasuke believed himself to be the last Uchiha, perhaps the village decided to put that thought into his head; to make him a survivor of the massacre. So that he wouldn't be likely to betray them either,"

Suigetsu looked thoughtful; "He's finished it. Itachi's dead; the sole reason why he made this team,"

Youki remained silent; her eyes were out of focus…. _Burning leaf_… She quickly regained her focus before the Mist Nin had noticed that she had a vision at all.

"He'll probably want to go after his village…"

"Unless he asks us to join, we're done here," The Mist Nin told her; "We all agreed to help for that one goal. To hunt down Itachi Uchiha, now that he's dead, we can leave,"

"What of Kisame?"

He looked at her, not sure what she was implying.

"What of him?"

"He's part of the Akatsuki; it would make sense to get his sword,"

Suigetsu smirked; "He's also the strongest,"

"You might as well stay here for the night, it will let you think about it," Youki told him and began to walk back into the cave.

"So, you _would_ stay with Sasuke,"

The Seer looked at him; "I told you… I'd go with you,"

"I guess you're right. At least I will know how strong I am when I finally face him," He stood and stretched, following Youki back into the cave and they walked in silence.

They stopped in front of two doors; Karin hadn't want to be near either of them, Sasuke was still injured so he was in another room a bit further down, and it had appeared that Juugo had taken the room next to Karin; possibly so that there wasn't any fights during their stay.

"Night," Youki said and moved to open the door on the left; but the Mist Nin did something that she didn't foresee; even in that short time frame.

He slipped his arms around her and embraced her. The Seer was unsure of what was going on and remained tense; but slowly she relaxed as she realised that it wasn't some cruel trick.

"You need to sleep," She told him.

He rested his head on her shoulder; "I can sleep here,"

"You _could_," She began to move back, but he wasn't letting go; "But your bed would be…" She found herself pulling him along as she moved away.

He grinned, his sharp teeth showing and he had a glint in his eye; "You've got a point,"

She wasn't surprised when he picked her up and took her to his room, she just sighed;

"Not what I meant,"

Of course she now realised how strong Suigetsu really was… She didn't think he could actually make her unable to leave the room by holding her…. And it wasn't a tight grip!

However she didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea, but she also knew that she wasn't strong enough to fight him off her. So she did the only thing she could do, used her feminine wiles; and she kissed him.

It wasn't meant to be a long kiss, just a quick kiss that would surprise him enough to loosen his hold for her to get out of the room. However she felt his tongue wanting access she realised that her plan hadn't worked; and part of her didn't actually mind that; she parted her lips and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer as he kicked the door close with his foot.

She had been attracted to Suigetsu, it was another reason why she decided to kiss him instead of hitting him; but she never actually expected him to kiss her back! He didn't even know how friends worked, how would a relationship work with him? Of course, she could just be worried over nothing; he might not want anything other than this.

Suigetsu broke the kiss; "Didn't know you were so forward," He teased.

"I'm not…" Youki blushed and looked at him carefully; "You'd better not be up to anything,"

The Mist Nin pretended to look hurt as he placed her gently on the futon; "Never," He grinned; "Unless you want me to,"

"No," She told him firmly and began to stand up, when he pulled her back down; "My room is…" She began, as he sat down next to her.

"You're here now," He pointed out, as if that was all the reason she needed to stay; "You think I'll let you go?"

She sighed, the friendship boundaries had definitely been brought crashing down by her idiotic _plan_ to get him to let her go. Taking off her cloak and shoes, she moved to go under the blanket as Suigetsu wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close as they lay on the futon.

"This is a lot better than sleeping outside," He commented, nuzzling into her neck.

"Hmmm," She felt her eyelids get heavy, and all she wanted to do was fall asleep.

"Youki?" He said softly, unsure if she was actually asleep.

"Yea?" She mumbled, nearly drifting away.

"We're not friends," It was a statement.

Opening her eyes, the seer turned to face him; all trace of sleep gone.

"Just a slight change," Wondering how she was going to explain to him what they were now… Or did he already know what the change was?

"Lovebirds," He quoted Sasuke from a few days ago.

She smiled, relaxing a bit; "Yea, you could say that," Sleep drifted back as she began to relax again, realising that it wasn't a major problem that she would have to deal with; and she closed her eyes, glad that he knew what level there relationship had taken and decided not to be overly concerned if he didn't know how that part went. Of course, neither did she.

She was on the brink of falling into a deep sleep when she felt lips touching her forehead, she didn't have the strength to open her eyes at the Mist Nin; just deciding to drift off into a peaceful sleep.

Suigetsu looked at her, stood up and walked towards the door and left the room.

The next morning, the violet haired seer woke to find that a blue skinned man looking down on her. Youki was startled at his presence, but she tried not to let it show.

She sat up, and began to put her shoes on; refusing to speak to him.

"Youki…" The silver haired Mist Nin entered the room to find Kisame already there and became tense; his eyes narrowed at his elder.

"You need to learn to know," Kisame berated the younger male.

"It must be a trait from the Mist," Youki slipped in, glaring at the man.

"Heh," Kisame smirked at her; "Madara wants to see you lot; Team Snake," He then turned and left the room.

To Youki it felt like the room had almost been… Lifted now that he was gone; but she noted the look Suigetsu gave her.

"How long have you been up?" He asked.

"I only just woke up," She informed him, getting up and starting to fold the blanket up; "He was already here," She added, figuring there was probably only one reason why he would ask such a question.

Suigetsu narrowed his eyes, but it wasn't at her, it was the whole situation. Why had Kisame come into her room? Youki and he weren't given any orders as to what room they were to stay in; and if Suigetsu was honest he wasn't likely to obey those orders.

So why had Kisame decided to go into her room? He was a swordsman; to kill someone while they sleep would be dishonourable.

"Come on," The Seer stood up and walked towards him; he moved back, letting her leave first and he followed to where the other's had gathered, waiting for them.

"Finally joined us," Kisame stated, with a smirk.

"You know, we never did finish our fight… If you were serious," Suigetsu said, his hand on his swords hand, his violet eyes glaring at the other former Mist Nin.

He didn't wait for an answer, instead he brought out his sword and was about to strike; when Madara move between them, and stopped Suigetsu's blow.

_He stopped it with his arm!_ Suigetsu thought to himself, shocked that anyone could do that with his sword, the sword previously owned by Zazuba; the Demon of the Mist.

"Sasuke, you lack discipline," The older Uchiha said, as Mist Nin moved back.

"Suigetsu, you're not strong enough yet," Sasuke told him, who just glared at Kisame.

"You're right," Was all he said, as he began to put his sword back; "Then we'll dine on shark-fin soup,"

"We are hunting the tailed demons," Madara informed them; "It would be easier for us all to work together for our common goal," He was looking mainly at Sasuke though.

The raven haired boy agreed, and Team Hawk was created to hunt down the 8 tailed demon, who was thought to be from the Cloud Village; while the rest of the Akatsuki would take the 9 tailed demon; Naruto.

Upon hearing his former team mate's name, Sasuke smirked, knowing what a hand-full Naruto would be, and all the problems the Akatsuki would face when going up against him.

As soon as they were outside, Sasuke finally spoke; "Get any supplies that we need. We'll leave as soon as possible,"

Juugo went to get food, Suigetsu and Youki went to fill up everyone's flasks and Karin made sure that the medical supplies were fully stocked up.

The silver haired Nin just glared ahead as the two began to collect water from a nearby river.

Youki remained silent, already aware that Kisame had made him angry, but she was unsure to what it was; this morning? Or that Madara had stopped the fight before it actually began?

_What if it's both?_ She thought to herself.

"You're right," He said suddenly, and she blinked, had she said anything out loud?

"I need to take out Kisame,"

She looked at him, wondering what he was talking about; then she remembered. The conversation the night before, before they went to bed.

"What helped with that decision?" She asked, filling up her flask.

"Heh," He just smirked at her; "Actually, I want to know what he's up to,"

"Up to?" She repeated, unsure what he meant by that.

"Why he's interested in you," Suigetsu informed her; noting her surprised look; "He was looking at you. Most likely he's going to hunt you once this is done… If he manages to kill me first, of course,"

"It can't be me," She shook her head at the idea; "He knows nothing about me,"

"You don't know the people of the Bloody Mist. We have a habit…" He paused as he finished filling up his bottle; "You're mine,"

She detected the possessiveness in his voice, knowing that it could be a problem; however she had other things to worry about and he was the only one who appeared to know about them!

If Suigetsu was strong, then Kisame was a lot stronger, and she wouldn't have a chance against him… She needed all the information on him as possible.

"He knows that," He continued; "And he wants you because of that,"

"He can see that we are Fr… Close? Why would he…?"

"He wants you away from me," He told her simply, and became thoughtful; "You're an outsider. Not many people want to be around a Mist Nin, given our reputation as a village is enough to make anyone weary. Few of us make friends out with the village,"

"What about…" She began to interrupt.

"Do we all act like friends?" He asked with a slight laugh; already knowing what her question would be, and she shook her head; "We're just a team. You and I are…" He paused for a moment.

"Close friends," Youki offered.

"Yea. He doesn't like that. Jealous probably," He smirked; "He wants you because you're not scared of me. And he isn't going to get you,"

The last line was a vow, she noted; "You'll try to keep me safe… From him. But you're not the same,"

He just stared at her; "What?"

"You and Kisame aren't the same. The only thing you have in common is that you were from the Village of the Mist," She pointed out.

"And we enjoy killing," He added.

"Apart from that…"

"And we know each other from the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist…"

"But aside from that, it's minor," She moved towards him and kissed his cheek.

This time Suigetsu just looked at her; confused.

"You'll never be Kisame," She clarified.

"Tch," He grinned; "I'll be stronger," He moved and kissed her lips, but she broke it off soon afterwards.

"Come on, we need to meet up with the others,"

"Fine," He stood up and they walked back to where Sasuke had said they would meet.

Karin and Juugo were already there, as Sasuke walked over to them;

"All right, let's go,"


	5. Chapter 5

Karin was focusing in the clearing, when she finally found it;

"I've found him," She pointed in the general direction; "Up there,"

They walked towards what appeared to be a ruined temple, climbing the steps they came upon a dark skinned man, who had a lot of swords on his back.

"Suigetsu go to the left, Juugo the right," Sasuke ordered; "Karin, Youki keep an eye on him,"

The two understood, just incase any of them were injured one could heal while the other could take the place of the injured party.

"So, you're from the Atakashi..." The man smirked; "You've no idea what you're dealing with,"

"Heh," Sasuke just looked at him, he had been in a team with Naruto, who was a kyuubi just like this guy, he thought he knew exactly what he was dealing with.

Suigetsu moved first, charging at the 8 tails, who was quick enough to block the blow and push the Mist Nin away, as Juugo joined the fray.

The Mist Nin found that this Kyuubi was strong, and a _very_ good swordsman; which he appreciated. How else would he be able to fight and kill Kisame, if he didn't get a chance to fight another well trained swordsman?

"You're good," Suigetsu stated, as he parried the other's attacks; part of him feeling exhilarated that he finally got a chance to fight a real fight, sword on sword; and knowing that this guy wasn't toying with him.

"So are you, yo; but you need a lot more _experience_," The kyuubi managed to knock the sword out of Suigetsu's hands.

"Damn it," The Mist Nin cursed, and just before the other man could strike, a band of flames separated them; allowing Suigetsu to retrieve his sword.

The dark skinned man glared at the Seer; "Ya just burning me up,"

Moving quickly he slammed his knee into Youki's stomach, blocked Juugo's blow and pushing him away, then parried a blow from Suigetsu's sword, before pushing him back into Youki; once more disarming the Mist Nin and knocking her out.

Sasuke joined the fight, allowing the Mist Nin to move Youki out of the way.

He didn't see any obvious injuries, but he was going to make sure Karin checked her over; he didn't trust that red haired girl.

However, before he got the chance to do anything, she slowly opened her eyes and asked softly; "I thought… you were made from water?"

"You wanted me to soak you?" He grinned, feeling relieved that she wasn't injured.

She stood up and watched as Sasuke and Juugo tried to take down the demon; "Point taken. This guy... He's a lot tougher than we'd expected,"

The Mist Nin nodded; "I doubt Kisame is this strong,"

He didn't feel that was the time to explain that changing himself into water was rather draining, and if he didn't really need to do it, he wouldn't. He was lucky that he figured that the kyuubi was busy trying to get him out of the way, along with Youki to let him focus on Juugo and Sasuke, to have made that blow any harder; otherwise he would have turned to water.

"Kisame uses one sword, I don't think it's a difference in strength, but technique," She pointed out, her visions were coming quickly, but they were of no use to her... It was mere seconds that she had, with this guy being so fast.

"Then we'd better get him," He told her; "Just to prove to _them_,"

She nodded, and then returned to the fight, Sasuke had been badly wounded, Karin managed to pull him away to heal him.

Suigetsu just looked at the situation, their leader had been badly wounded; Juugo was being worn down, he and Youki were already wounded in several places; but none that would take them away from this fight. But the 8 tailed demon was getting ready for his final attack.

"Ya lot can't take me out," The dark skinned man remarked, only to have a massive ball of fire distract him from finally defeating the group; he glared at the Seer; "Ya think you can stop me?"

Youki shook her head; and gestured to the nearby river; "He probably can,"

Retreating a good distance away from the river, she watched as Suigetsu gathered a massive wave of water and began to head towards the other swordsman.

"Impressive man," The kyuubi said; and began to call upon the bull beast inside him, knowing full well that he couldn't deflect this attack on his own.

As the mass of waves hit, which pushed the bull demon back; however due to the nature of the attack, Suigetsu was unconscious, to such a degree that he wasn't fully solid any more.

"Now what?" Karin looked at Sasuke, panicked at the fact that they could very well die in this place.

"I've got it," Sasuke told them, standing up and prepared to fight.

Juugo had picked up Suigetsu, bringing him over to Karin; although she wasn't able to do anything for him, he was unconscious, and to wake him up was outside of her abilities; instead she tended to his other injuries.

"He needs water. A lot of it," Karin told them, but they couldn't help the Mist Nin until the kyuubi was defeated.

It hadn't looked too good; what with Suigetsu being unconscious, Karin's chakra being drained due to healing Sasuke, and Juugo becoming a great deal weaker, as was Youki. They relied on Sasuke to defeat this guy... And they knew full well what would happen if he didn't.

Thankfully, although injured, Sasuke had managed to defeat him; with Madara appearing only to take the beast away as they began to slowly make their way to some shelter; to heal up.  
Juugo had managed to find a place that, although run down; was suitable for them to rest and appeared to have a tank that could be filled with water for Suigetsu; since being submerged in water would most likely help him be back on his feet.

"Hopefully not too quickly," Karin commented, as Juugo placed the Mist Nin into the tank.

It didn't take long for him to wake up; however he wasn't fully complacent. Youki decided to stay awake while the other's rested, after all it was Suigetsu, they knew what he was like when he was awake, what would he be like when he wasn't completely with it?

"He wants you," The Mist Nin repeated; his voice partially melted with the water.

Physically he looked almost solid; however you could see he still was fully solid yet, which obviously meant that he wasn't completely there; in body or mind.

"Kisame?" Youki knew this conversation well, Suigetsu had already told her about that shark nin, but why was he bringing it up?

"Yea… He wants you…"

"Suigetsu," Youki felt tired with the conversation, it would be the 3rd time in 24 hours; "You already told me about this, remember?"

"I know," He said stubbornly; "But he only wants you, to get to me,"

She nodded; "You said that as well,"

"We're very… Possessive. He'll have to try and kill me first,"

"Rest," She told him gently, feeling the edges of sleep trying to send her off to the dream world, to rest after the day of fighting.

"I…" He never finished his sentence, apparently falling asleep.

"You should sleep too,"

She was startled, and turned to see Sasuke walking towards her; "He must like you," He added with a smirk.

Youki shook her head; "He's already repeated most of what he said already,"

"At least you know that he _will _protect you from Kisame when he has to," Sasuke told her, and then looked thoughtful; "Mist Ninja's work well in pairs,"

She turned, a questioned look on her face; "How do…"

"Something I learned from Zazuba," He stated, and she moved away to sleep.

_The Demon…_ Her mind was numb; she was tired and couldn't think of anything apart from sleep. In the morning she might think over what Sasuke had told her, but right then and there she just wanted to sleep.

"You were out cold, and the rest of us weren't any better!" Karin snapped; "You're so selfish,"

Youki opened her eyes, unsurprised to find Karin and Suigetsu bickering.

"You were out too," The Mist Nin pointed out.

She sat up and looked at them, wiping the sleep from her eyes with her fingers.

"Sleep well?" Juugo asked her, and she nodded.

Truth be, told she would have loved to have slept for a bit longer; but given that she appeared to be the last one up… Sasuke obviously let her sleep in anyway.

"Sasuke has gone to deal with some _visitors_," Karin told her, before she could ask.

"They must have noticed the fight," Juugo commented.

"I would be worried if they hadn't," Youki stretched and stood up.

"I'll go start breakfast," Karin said, and without waiting for any answer from them, left.

"How are you two feeling?"

"I just needed to sleep," The blonde told her; "I'll keep an eye out for Sasuke, just incase," He excused himself.

Suigetsu rolled his eyes; "What did I say last night?"

The Seer shrugged; "Not much, just repeated what you told me about Kisame and Mist Nin in general,"

He narrowed his violet eyes at her; sure that she was keeping something from him; "You sure I didn't say something else?"

_He remembers, at least most of it._ She thought to herself; "You did say something, but I didn't understand it,"

He relaxed; "At least we caught him,"

She nodded, but still felt tired. _What's wrong with me?_ _It can't be from yesterdays fight, can it? I know I haven't been able to fight like that in a long time… But surely that can't be why I feel so drained?_

"You should rest," Suigetsu eyed her carefully; she was a lot paler than she normally was, he could practically smell her tiredness.

"I'm fine," She tired to dismiss it; though the Mist Nin was many things, a fool wasn't one of them.

"You know… Before any of this, I wouldn't need to be in a tank,"

She just looked at him, surprised; "If it wasn't for you, we'd be dead by now," She looked away from him; "You bought us some extra time for Sasuke to heal. Besides you would have become one of the Swordsmen of the Mist,"

He grinned; she had a very good point, and he figured that this would take her mind off of how she was feeling. Or at least he hoped it was.

"Besides, this is just going to help you," She pointed out, turning to see his confused expression; "It's training. You're village was pretty…"

"Violent," He put in, and she nodded; wearily.

"Exactly, so it will help when you finally fight Kisame," Youki told him, knowing that very few people were ever comfortable talking about the way the Mist Village trained it's ninja's. Now they might not try to actively kill each other, but they were trained just as ruthlessly.

Suigetsu nodded; "Then we'll get to eat shark-fin soup," He looked at her carefully; "Just rest,"

She waved him off; "It's nothing,"

"That explains why you're so pale," He said sarcastically.

Youki remained silent, nearly feeling the colour draining from her face; and then there was the dizziness. She closed her eyes, hoping against hope the dizziness would go… It didn't.

"Go outside," The Mist Nin told her; his voice left no room for argument.

_He's in a tank… He won't drag me outside…_ Youki stood up, and began to walk away; _It could help though. It's not likely to make me feel any worse._

She paused and looked at him, feeling guilty that she was going outside and leaving him here; and worse was that Karin would be back.

However, he was grinning, his sharp teeth showing and he waved her away.

Once she was out in the open, a light breeze cooled her down; but it was the heat from the sun's rays that helped get rid of that feeling of dizziness, and slowly that draining feeling that she felt was going too.

The red haired Nin came back into the room to find nearly everyone had gone; except the Mist Nin, who was still resting up in the tank.

"Where'd they go?" She demanded to know.

Suigetsu could feel a grin coming, but he tried to hold it in; "They heard you were cooking," However in seeing Karin looking pissed off; he couldn't hide the grin for long.

"And why are you still here? Too _weak _to leave?"

"Someone had to take note of your expression," He told her, shrugging off the 'weak' comment. As far as he was concerned, he was a lot stronger that she was; at least he participated in that fight.

"Looks like they are hunting us," Sasuke walked into the room; halting whatever argument that may have occurred, he glanced at the two; "Think you can leave soon?"

"How soon?" Karin asked, as the Mist Nin nodded.

"An hour," Sasuke looked between the two, _I just interrupted another fight, when will they learn?_ "They'll send out a search party I would think,"

The blonde male came behind Sasuke, having walked at a slower pace, enjoying nature that was around him, and basking in it.

"Youki?" Juugo asked; Karin just shrugged while Sasuke looked at the boy in the tank.

"Outside,"

"Why is she out there? Surely she should know…" Karin began to rant.

"She knows…" Juugo said softly, a small bird on his shoulder; "She's taking in the sun,"

Karin looked confused; "Taking… In... The sun?"

"Makes sense," Sasuke said thoughtfully; _Would be interesting to know exactly what her clan did to her… Maybe nothing to help her… This is probably just a side effect from an experiment gone wrong. _

Juugo took two bowls from Karin and left, the little bird having flown back outside.

He spotted her sitting on a smooth rock, eyes closed; but she titled her head in his general direction.

"Juugo?" Grey eyes opened to look at the blonde, who held out a bowl of noodles.

Nodding her thanks she began to eat, gesturing for him to take a seat; "Sasuke wants us to leave soon?"

He looked surprised, but smiled slightly, remembering that her gift was to foresee the future; "Yea, once we've eaten," He looked carefully at her, before he spoke again; "You're like him,"

She stared at him in confusion, holding her noodles up to be eaten; "How?" She had no idea who _he_ was, but figured that once Juugo explained what he meant, she'd have a better idea.

"He needs water to heal, you just need sunlight," He smiled slightly; "You're opposites. But you balance each other,"

_Suigetsu._ "I guess so," She made no further comment, instead focused on eating her meal before they went back to re-join the other's.

As the violet hair Seer and Juugo entered the room; Suigetsu noted that she wasn't as pale as before; in fact she looked a _lot_ better; perhaps Karin's food benefited as well?

_Yea, right._ He thought to himself.

"And what were you two up to?" Karin asked, raising an eyebrow at them.

"Jealous?" Suigetsu shot at her, glad to be out of the tank; although it made it a lot easier for Karin to punch him. Even though he just became water.

"Let's go," Sasuke looked at them and walked out of the crumbling building; knowing that they would be avoiding _another _fight.

Karin followed Juugo, while Suigetsu put on his Atakashi cloak over his normal outfit and then began to follow.

"How are you feeling?" The Seer asked; knowing that he couldn't be back to full strength so soon.

He just smirked; "Shouldn't have done that," His hand moved quickly, brushing her hair out of her eyes before she could even react; "You've got your colour back,"

"Juugo thinks we're alike," She blurted out, and then realized what she had just said; _Idiot. He didn't need to know…_

The Mist Nin just laughed; "We're nothing alike. You're a Leaf, am from the Mist,"

"Fire and water," She stated, and noticed that he nodded.

"True, I guess… But I think Sasuke is more _fire_ than you," He teased her, as the group came to a stop.

Sasuke looked around, Karin looked concerned, she was getting way too many chakras.

_Kunai knifes. Cloud. Spaced out._ Youki shook her head; the vision wasn't helpful; they already knew that the Cloud ninja's would follow them.

"Spread out… Be careful," Sasuke told them as they went in different directions.

Karin spotted two of them, one hidden in the bush and another high in the tree tops; she carefully indicted their positions to Suigetsu, who reached for his sword… Only to find it wasn't there.

"Now you have to actually fight them," Karin taunted him.

"Do you even know how to fight?" Without waiting for a reply, he moved quickly, killing the ninja in the tree first and then finishing off the one hidden in the bush; trying to make sure that it wasn't completely obvious that it was they who took them out…

_Who else would it be? The __Atakashi? _He thought to himself as they regrouped, with the cloud ninja's either dead or unconscious.

"Something is wrong," Sasuke told them as they finally walked out of the woodland area to meet Madara, who was already waiting for them.

"It fooled you," He stated.

They all knew what he meant by _it_, the 8 tailed demon. Though he never showed if he was angry.

"We caught the 8 tails and you took him," Karin argued, unable to believe what they went through to get it had failed; that they had been tricked.

"No," Madara shook his head; "A piece of him, but not the actual beast,"

"We'll get him," Sasuke told him and looked at Karin; "Though the village seemed uptight about a missing Nin,"

"That's because he's the village leader's brother," Madara clued them in, and then was gone.

"Wait… Leader's brother? Tch, no wonder they were quick to hunt us down," Suigetsu said; slightly irritated that they weren't given that important part of information before hand.

"We wounded him, "Juugo pointed out.

Sasuke looked at them; "The leader's brother… So they would be looking not just for us; but for him as well,"

"He can't have returned to his village," Youki stated; "Which is why they are after us, they believe we have him,"

"That's why they were spying on us, not attacking. Making sure they knew where he was…"

"Most would get there comrade back," Karin added.

"Re-group and then attack," Youki nodded.

"They've been coming in small waves…" Suigetsu spoke, realizing that something bigger would come their way if they didn't get the 8 tails soon.

"We can't take on a village," Juugo pointed out.

"We just need to get the 8 tails," Karin said; "But with him being so strong… And his village tracking us…"

"Doppelgangers'," Sasuke told them.

Karin just stared at him, dumbstruck; "Doppelgangers'?"

"We can make our copies lead the village ninja's away while we reclaim the 8 tails," Suigetsu smirked; enjoying the idea.

"And since he's been wounded, he'll be a lot weaker. We can use that to our advantage," Sasuke pointed out to them.

Youki, Suigetsu and Sasuke made there own copies; Juugo felt it could be too dangerous to use his own chakra to make a clone of himself; while Karin didn't wish to waste her chakra incase it was needed to heal them.

"They won't notice anyway," Suigetsu told Sasuke; "After all, you're an Uchiha, that will be a pull for them to go after you,"

"They will probably recognize you… And figure out where you're from," Youki added, and he just nodded.

"Let's go,"

The main group headed off to find the beast, and the doppelgangers' left to distract the Cloud Ninja's.


	6. Chapter 6

The cell finally found him, resting against a tree. The jinchuuriki looked up at them;

"Ya wanna fight me again, yo? After tha whippin' I gave y'all before?" He smirked at them.

They remained silent; all of them ready to bring him down; knowing that this time they had the advantage.

"Tryin' to be serious? Ya'll know I'll just kill ya,"

There was something behind him, in the woods; that caught the light. Youki squinted slightly to see if she could make out what it was.

"You wanted freedom," She said suddenly; and all of them looked at her.

"Wha?" He was startled and then rubbed his neck; "I have freedom,"

"Not the same as the rest of your village," She looked at Juugo, and he gave her a slight nod, catching her meaning.

"I think you'll die first!" The jinchuuriki moved, taking two of his swords and was ready to stab Youki in the stomach when Suigetsu moved in front of her; turning into water as one of the blows hit him while the other blow was parried by Juugo; who looked at the man;

"You're like me," He stated, it wasn't exactly true, but at that moment, they needed an advantage.

"I ain't nothin' like ya; I don't need no group to work with,"

"But, you have something… That could easily kill everyone you care about," Juugo moved to block another blow, managing to parry the strikes that the 8 tailed beast was making.

"What's going on?" Karin looked at Youki, who nudged Suigetsu towards the forest.

He looked at the area of woodland, not understand; then he saw it. The shine of a blade, Zazuba's sword… His sword. Quickly he moved to grab it, checking it over; but making sure that Juugo was managing all right without him.

"I think Juugo is getting to him," Sasuke stated with a smirk; "Get ready,"

After so many parries there was an opening, and Suigetsu was quick enough to take it; managing to actually hit the beast.

"Ya all just wanna die painfully," The jinchuuriki began to summon the beast; and they realised that he wasn't even fully healed.

Sasuke was faster, his Chidori was ready and he slashed at the beast appearing limbs; while Suigetsu and Juugo stabbed and Karin, along with Youki had there own jujutsu's ready.

The red haired nin moved slightly away from the fight; sensing someone coming close, but the chakra was familiar, almost like…

"Karin," The Copy of Sasuke spoke and she blinked in surprise; "They'd better end it quickly," He looked over at the fight.

Shaking her head, she tried to find the other two; but she couldn't sense them at all.

Copy Sasuke realised that, he nodded; "They are gone. There was too many for us to handle. This time they are after us," He indicated to the group in the fight; before bringing out a kunai knife and stabbing the beast, before retreating back to hold off the Cloud Ninja's for as long as he could.

It didn't take long, however, for the team to finally over power the 8 tails. They were lucky, in that they could all rest and relay on each other to keep watch, he didn't have the luxury to completely rest himself; in case someone should attack again.

Sasuke gave the final blow, knocking the beast unconscious.

"Heh," The Mist Nin smirked, wiping the mix of sweat and blood off his forehead; "We got 'em,"

"We should signal Madara," Karin looked over to Sasuke, who glanced at Juugo; only to see Kisame walking towards them.

"Not bad… For a second attempt," The former Mist Nin said, looking at each of them; his eyes lingered on the Seer for an extra second until Suigetsu pulled her closer to him.

"Did you retrieve the nine tailed Kyuubi?" Sasuke asked, directing Kisame's attention to him.

The Shark Nin smirked; "Not yet,"

"Well, they aren't any stronger," Suigetsu said to Youki; "Better hope they catch it on the second try,"

Kisame glared at the Mist Nin.

"We'll head back," Sasuke said, interrupting any thoughts Kisame might have had to just go ahead and kill Suigetsu there and then.

He said nothing, just picked up the defeated man and left, glaring at the younger Mist Nin.

"They'll need help," He said, looking at the spot that Kisame disappeared to.

He allowed the group to take a breather, but they had to leave soon; still being hunted and this time for a good reason.

Moving quickly, although still letting Suigetsu take time out to drink, to replenish his energy again; not realising that he still was fully a hundred percent back to top form.

They stopped to make camp for the night; Karin and Juugo went to get fire wood as Sasuke stayed at the camp; while Youki and Suigetsu gathered more water for everyone.

"He'll fight," The Mist Nin stated, as he filled up the flasks at the river.

"Who?" The Seer asked, cupping her hands into the water and slashed her face.

"Kisame," He screwed the tops back on the flasks, and looked at her; "He wants you,"

"We knew that already," She reminded him, wiping her face on the cloak that Madara had given them.

"I'd die first," He vowed quietly, taking sips from his flask and then filling it up again.

She looked at him, eyebrow raised; "You're wasting time,"

Grinning up at her he nodded; "Yup, and I'm enjoying it,"

"You know," Youki sighed; "The serious part will happen soon,"

He refilled his flask, stood up and looked into her eyes; "I'll be ready,"

His eyes were calm, unflinching; considering what he did before in the first fight against that 8 tailed jinchuuriki; and he is a prodigy, brought up in the Village of the Mist, none of their soldiers ever showed fear.

They began to walk back to the camp site, Suigetsu putting his flasks back to his side pockets.

"How will this end…" Youki murmured to herself.

Suigetsu looked at her; unsure as to what she meant by that statement.

"For us, you, me, Sasuke and Juugo," She clarified.

"And Karin?" Suigetsu added; wondering if the Seer disliked the red head to miss her out in that thought, or if she had another reason; "Or do you think she's dead already?"

"I think," She smiled slightly, knowing what he probably thought; "She could easily become part of a village if she wanted to. Claim that her village was attacked, and she wanted to stay somewhere safe,"

"Huh," He never thought of that, in fact it never occurred to him that Karin could easily lie to live somewhere safe; however she had stated that she would stay with Sasuke.

"However, Sasuke will be wanted, Juugo is too dangerous; your village will be looking for you as well,"

"Your family will be starting to look for you, once they learn that you aren't confined anymore," He added.

"We'll either end up dead," She ignored what he said; "Or back to where we all started,"

"Won't happen," Suigetsu told her, without a thought.

"You don't…"

"I would rather die than go back," He stated; startling her.

But, after a moment, she became thoughtful. She was trapped in that tube, used as a lab rat… though she hadn't had anything changed… Unless you count the fact that she had learned that she needed the sun to get over the drained feeling she had after the fight with the 8 tails the first time.

"As much as I enjoy living… I would too,"

She had a quick flash… _Swords, and head bands…_Shaking her head she tried to make sense of the vision; only to encounter Cloud Ninja's.

"Damn it,"

"You hurt our Master!" One of the yelled, and they attacked.

Wisps of flames encircled them, as Suigetsu brought out his sword and cut them all down as there attention was diverted on the Seer.

Looking at the bodies, he turned to face her; "We'd better get back," Upon saying that, they both ran to find the others. It wasn't safe to stay there, not for the night.

As the two arrived at the camp, they spotted the other Cloud Ninjas, all defeated, but not dead; unlike the ones who attacked them.

"Can't stay here for the night," Sasuke said, and moved the forest, leaping from branch to branch.

Karin looked focused; "They stopped following us,"

Sasuke nodded; "We're entering another territory,"

Suigetsu moved further back from the group, weary of this new place; "The Mist," He said quietly.

"They heard what Madara had to say, some time ago. Only a fool would try to attack us here," Sasuke informed them, but they continued to head for the main village.

Suigetsu stopped before they entered the village; his pasted creeping up on him, his childhood, and the main prominent images of his life flashing in his mind.

"I'm not going in,"

The other four looked at him in surprise.

"You're part of this cell. The village won't try to get you back, if that's what you're worried about," Sasuke said, attempting to reassure the Mist Nin.

However Suigetsu was stubborn; and shook his head. He had been kidnapped by Orochimaru; he was supposed to be the prodigy of The Demon Zazuba! It was more the shame of what had happened to him that caused him to shy away from his place of birth; and also the fact that he no longer desired to be one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist; even though he had one of their swords.

The Village of the Bloody Mist was nothing to him now. Anything that connected him to this place was gone.

"You idiot, we can't split up now just because of your pride," Karin snapped at him.

"Listen bitch," Suigetsu reacted angrily, no longer teasing or taunting her like he normally would; "My pride was all I had left in that lab. Remember?"

Karin was shaken by how he reacted; "Tch… you're no ninja," She said, looking away from him.

Sasuke stepped between them; "All right, you and Youki can keep an eye out; see what those Cloud ninja's are up to… If anything; around the boundaries. The rest of us will try and find some where to rest,"

They all went in different directions, as the trio walked towards the city, Juugo spoke;

"Why not Karin? She would have made it easier to find us?"

"Because those two would end up fighting each other, as well as the enemy," Sasuke pointed out, and the blonde nodded; "And I can't have you with him either, if you were to lose control, there would be a lot more at stake,"

Although the taller nin agreed with Sasuke's reasoning, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong about those two being away.

However, he wasn't a seer like Youki; so what could happen to them?

The silver haired Mist Nin sat down at the base of the tree and greedily drank from his hip flask. The dark haired Seer watched him from the corner of her eyes, wondering what was going on in that head of his.

"You know," He stated, wiping his mouth and put his flask back.

She shook her head; "I'm not entirely sure,"

He grinned; "You know I won't stay here," He looked at the woods; "I love to fight, who doesn't in this village? But I won't fight something like this… Not for _him_,"

_Leaves, running, blonde hair, opal eyes, __kunai…_ She shook her head. Her vision was once more coming quickly.

"What of Kisame?" She asked, trying to focus away from her visions.

"That fight will come," He promised, before smirking at her; "You know, you're village might let me in,"

"Not without reservations. They'll keep a close eye on you, unless you can prove beyond a doubt that you won't double cross them," Youki reminded him.

"We'll tell them what's going on. Plus," He was smirking broadly now; "You can tell them how well behaved I am,"

The Seer began to laugh; "When will you leave?"

He rolled his shoulders, scanning the area; "Now,"

Picking her up he moved, getting out of the Mist territory, and away from the Cloud's lands and ran towards the Leaf village.

"You know… Karin will notice," Youki said, startled once again at him picking her up.

Suigetsu wasn't really listening, he just wanted out and he figured that the Leaf village could help him with that… He might have a bit more limitations, but he was sure he could prove himself. Anything was better than staying in his old home, where the only person that he cared for… That made it feel like home was gone.

"Karin won't say anything… Of course she wouldn't have noticed. She has to concentrate, and that would be hard, since _Sasuke_ is there. Of course if Sasuke had been with me, she would never have lost focus,"

"The Cloud…"

"After Sasuke," Suigetsu pointed out; "They know of him, who doesn't know of the Uchiha? And the fact that he wears his families crest on the back of his shirt," He snorted; "Not much of a ninja to do that,"

He put her down, and noticed that she looked weary; "Hum?"

"They could… What if they just kill us on site? I'm probably down as a missing ninja,"

"Your age. If what Madara said about the massacre of the Uchiha clan is true; perhaps the Hokage didn't completely intend for it to be the whole clan. However since your family left, you were a child. Unlikely for you to know what was going on to begin with. They probably kept tabs on your family," He noted the anger in her grey eyes; "I don't think they could have stopped it, it was another's land,"

"Belonging to the Village of Stone," Youki said dully; "Couldn't afford another war to break out, not over something like that,"

He decided they needed to get off that subject; it was making the Seer depressed, and he didn't want that; not when they had other matters to deal with.

"At least, it's just us," He pulled her close; "No more bitchy comments,"

Youki smiled; "You certainly scared her after that last comment," Then she added; "I could easily bit…"

She was interrupted with his lips on her own.

He broke it off; "We do need each other,"

Rather than replying she rested her head against his shoulder, as his arms wrapped around her.

She felt him tense up, and she quickly looked up.

"Shit," He muttered; "The Leafs found us first,"

She turned her head to see three Leaf nin, two males and one female, and a big white dog. They all looked ready to fight, and Suigetsu reach for his sword, when Youki moved forward, recognising the girl.


	7. Chapter 7

The males were all ready to fight; but the raven haired female looked at the two ninja's who were embracing a second ago; wondering why…

"Hinata," The male with the red markings on his cheeks called to her.

The grey eyes Seer looked at the girl; "Hyuuga?"

Shoulder length raven hair, opal eyes, lilac coat, this could be the Hyuuga Princess. A girl she knew from so long ago.

"Yes," Hinata looked at the dark haired girl; "Youki?"

Suigetsu looked at the two, dumbfounded. This sort of thing would never happen in the Mist, even when he and Kisame met they went to blows, only to _kill_ time; but never in such a manner as these two old… Friends? Acquaintances?

"You've certainly changed," She commented, feeling Suigetsu take her hand into his own.

"You're family left the village," Hinata walked towards them; being careful of the Mist Nin, even if it was her old friend standing there, she was still weary of him; "You're family left the village… Where did you all go?"

"I'll explain that later," The Seer looked at him and then back to her friends; "We need to speak to the Hokage,"

The raven haired girl nodded, and they all walked towards the other ninja's; the one with the facial marking was Kiba and the quiet boy who was pretty much covered from head to toe was Shino.

"Youki used to live in the village," Hinata explained to them.

"And why not now?" Kiba asked, as they slowly made there way to the village.

"My family left, and I'm not sure why," Youki gave them a half truth. She knew part of the reason why they left, they couldn't experiment on her if they stayed, but she wasn't sure of the other half.

"Who is your friend?" She asked, blushing that she was so rude to not have asked before.

"Suigetsu," The Mist Nin told her with a grin; he figured that if this girl was a friend to Youki, she can't be that bad.

"What village are you from?" Shino asked him.

"Formerly the Mist," He replied, slightly tense, but Shino and Hinata were weary; however Kiba was sceptical.

"How long ago is formerly?"

"Since Orochimaru made me his lab rat," Suigetsu told them bluntly.

The Leaf ninja's all looked at him in shock.

"You knew that he had human experiments, right?"

"Yea..." Kiba replied, though still in shock and glanced at Youki who looked back before repeating;

"My family left the village,"

They soon came to the entrance of Konoha Village.

It appeared easy enough to see the Hokage; a mention of Orochimaru was their way of getting to see her.

"We know he's dead," Tsunade said; _he _being Orochimaru, and examined the two carefully; "But what other information do you have?"

"You're after Sasuke… Or more to the point the leader of Akatsuki, Madara," Suigetsu stated and noted the blonde haired woman looked at them in shock.

"They are after the Kyuubi; they just need the last one…" Youki continued as Tsunade digested this information.

"You both were wearing the Akatsuki cloaks when you first entered the village; why are you telling me all this?" She narrowed her eyes, knowing that it could easily be a trick.

"I refuse to fight for something that I don't believe in," Suigetsu told her, not wanting to say the rest of his reasoning, that he felt Madara was an idiot for numerous of reasons.

"It's all about revenge. Madara wants the people of this village to suffer," Youki added.

"He'll use the energy to become stronger…"

"We figured we could stay here," Suigetsu added; and she glared at him.

"_You're_ from the Mist," She stated.

"So you refuse to trust us?"

"This could easily be a trap,"

Youki nodded; "True, but since you've already had a fight against Pain, who has demolished parts of the village; why bother with a trap?"

"And send the two newest members?" The Mist Nin pointed out.

Tsunade was angry, they had a good point. If anything the Akatsuki could attack now and they would be in serious trouble against them.

"He won't kill anyone," Youki promised.

"You can't make that promise,"

"Then I will," The Mist Nin said.

"You're people love to kill… Why would you…" She began, but he interrupted her.

"Because we'll be hunted by the Akatsuki; once he learns we've left,"

"And you're Orochimaru's lab rat,"

Suigetsu stiffened, but nodded.

"What did he do to you?" Tsunade was curious, but the boy grinned at her.

"He didn't do anything… Just wanted to learn about my… Families natural trait,"

The 6th Hokage looked surprised; wondering how this Nin managed to survive in the Mist, after the massacre that had on those families who had special gifts or traits that gave them a slight edge on those who didn't.

The Mist Nin looked at Youki, who nodded; without another word, the Seer punched Suigetsu's face, but rather than a loud crack, it was water.

Tsunade looked at him, impressed by what she was seeing; "You're weakness would be lightening attacks,"

Suigetsu grimaced, remembering Sasuke using Chidori on him…

"Granny Hokage!" A male voice yelled; "What's the new information on Sasuke!"

A blonde boy entered the room; his blue eyes scanned to find Tsunade, and then looked back to the other two ninjas in the room.

Suigetsu tensed, recognising that face, the orange jacket and blue trousers… The one Sasuke spoke about. The doppelganger that tried to follow them; when they went to kill Itachi. Naruto.

"What was that?" The blonde woman glared at the young Leaf Nin.

"Who are these guys?" Naruto began to ask, not at all bothered at the fact that the Hokage snapped at him, or the fact he insulted her, something clicked inside his head as he recognised the two; "What!"

Suigetsu smirked, loud Leaf Nin _and _he had a nine tailed Kyuubi inside him? No wonder the Akatsuki had a hard time catching him.

"You're from Sasuke's group!"

"Yup," The Mist Nin replied.

"Where is he?"

"The Village of the Mist,"

"Then let's go get him!" He exclaimed, ready to leave the room.

"Naruto!" Tsuande cried out, once she had his attention she lowered her voice; "The Mist Village is highly dangerous…"

"And with the Akatsuki making a new base there… Not to mention Madara," Youki spoke to them, pointing out the flaws in just wildly going to get Sasuke.

"Who's Madara?" Naruto asked, looking confused as to why he knows that name, but not why it's in this conversation.

"The first leader of the Uchiha clan. One of the founders of Konoha," Youki informed him, getting the distinct feeling that this Ninja was a lot of work.

"What's their plan?" Tsuande asked the two.

"Sasuke wants revenge…" Youki replied, but a bit unsure.

"But he already did that, he defeated Itachi," Naruto reminded her, and noticed the Mist Nin shaking his head; "What?"

"Madara told him the _truth_. That Itachi killed his clan because he was ordered to by the village, due to the Uchiha were wanting to revolt. Itachi was a double agent," Youki explained to the two.

"Itachi…" Naruto looked at them in shock.

"Once he killed them he left the village; but he stopped to speak to the 5th Hokage, to allow Sasuke to live and to keep an eye on him. It was a clever plan, he wanted the village and his brother to hate him than to remain and have his brother also part of the massacre,"

"He did all that… To protect Sasuke?" Naruto asked, and Youki nodded; "So, what do we do?"

"He's after revenge. He'll be coming after the heads who ordered the massacre in the first place," Suigetsu answered.

"So he'll…" The blonde looked at Tsunade, but she wasn't there when that happened… it was the advisors that would be in trouble; "He can't..."

"To do what he plans to do… Madara wants all the leaders to be killed. It would mean that there would be no one that the village would turn to," Youki told them.

"Just chaos," Tsunade realised.

"Not exactly… Power over the village," Youki corrected her.

"No way!" Naruto exclaimed in disbelief.

"After being in exile for so long, he wants to be in control of his ancestral home," Youki told them; "And as you can see, he's doing everything in his power to make it so,"

"He's like a dog with a bone," Suigetsu commented.

"Can't let go," Tsunade murmured.

"The one thing that the Uchiha's have in common, they don't stray from what they are after," Youki pointed out.

"What can we do?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade rubbed her forehead, but Suigetsu replied;

"Right now?"

Naruto glared at the boy; "Hey, Sasuke belongs here with us! If Orochimaru hadn't…"

The two women noted that the situation was getting a bit tense, and as Hokage Tsunade had to do something;

"Then all his test subjects would be dead by now,"

The two males calmed down, for the moment at least.

"Right now the Akatsuki are going to gain the eight tails energy. Sasuke and the others are all resting up," Youki told her.

"I see,"

"Then we should go there!" Naruto yelled.

"Their guard would be down. No one has ever attacked the Mist Village directly for sometime," Suigetsu pointed out.

"They would have the upper hand, it's their territory. We don't have enough soldiers to start an attack,"

"Gaara would help, which means the Village of the Sand would too," Naruto stated.

Youki looked at Suigetsu, who smirked; "And not all the Mist ninja's would be willing to fight for Madara,"

"What!" 5th Hokage looked at him in surprise.

"Just because we love to fight, doesn't mean we'd do it for any reason," Suigetsu told them.

"You think you can convince them to join us?" Naruto asked.

"Sure," He said with a shrug; but he didn't need to tell them exactly how he would get his own people to join them. That was a bit of information they didn't need to know.

"We'll begin tomorrow," Tsunade told the and looked at Suigetsu and Youki; "Right now you two should rest,"

She gave them a set of keys to a place in the middle of the village and directions on where to go, and the two set off.

"What village is she from then?" Naruto asked when they left.

"Here,"

"What? How? I don't recognise her,"

"Not many would, since her family kept their distance, none of us really noticed when they left, until someone from the Hyuuga clan told us that they were gone,"

"So, is her family like Sasuke's and Hinata's?"

"Not to the same extent. However I had heard that every second generation had a gift… apparently to see into the future; though this was never proven," Tsunade told him; "She had the beginnings to being a good ninja from what I remember of her,"

"We can trust them?"

"I believe so, however be careful around that Mist boy," She warned him.

Formerly of Team Hawk, Youki and Suigetsu were fully aware they were being watched. For once though, they didn't care; all they wanted to do was rest.

"Went better than I thought," The silver haired Mist Nin stated, noticing the look Youki was giving him, he grinned; "I was expecting some kind of interrogation, a bit of torture; you know, the usual stuff,"

The dark haired Seer shook her head; "The village wouldn't do that, not when you came willingly,"

"Leaf Ninja's are soft," He said, knowing full well that if he set a foot out of line the ANBU that were watching him would happily beat the life out of him.

"At least you'll be sleeping comfortably tonight," She pointed out as they entered their new 'home'.

"It feels weird…" He walked into the apartment, looking around the rooms.

The apartment was in the centre of the village, so that if they did start any trouble, they couldn't escape too easily, and that the ANBU could keep an eye over them and anything else that might be going on.

"Without them," He finally finished, looking out the window.

"You want to…" Youki began, knowing that the chances were slim for them to leave, but there was still a chance.

"No," He looked at her; "Be a puppet for Madara?" He shook his head; "Besides, it's kinda nice not having Karin around," He moved to lie on the floor, his eyes gazing out of the window.

Youki sat down on the floor; "Just us now,"

Looking over she noticed that he had fallen asleep, and like him she didn't have the energy to move, but she grabbed a pillow from the sofa and rested her head on it before drifting off.


	8. Chapter 8

It felt like a minute had gone by when someone woke her up.

Opening her grey eyes she saw the blonde haired boy from yesterday; Naruto, and Suigetsu; plus two other shinobi's. One was similar to Sasuke, dark hair, pale skin; the other was a girl with pink hair and bewitching green eyes.

"Hmmm?" She sat up and realized that she must have been asleep for a good bit of the day.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she now noticed that the two new people flanked Suigetsu, the girl had mixed emotions, part angry and also… Upset? Afraid? Youki wasn't completely sure, but maybe a mix of the three. While the Sasuke look-a-like looked confused at what was going on.

Youki figured it was to do with the pink hair's reaction.

"What's going on?" She finally asked.

"He has Zabuza's sword," Naruto told her.

"We marked his grave with it," The girl added, and Youki did see it, anger and fear; evidently the sword was at fault here.

"You _helped_ to take down my predecessor?" Suigetsu mocked her.

A vein began to bulge a bit on her head; she clenched her fist ready at any moment to hit him.

"But Suigetsu is entitled to the sword," Youki butted in, before any damage could be done; "He was known as the reincarnation of Zazuba,"

"I believe we should introduce ourselves," The Sasuke look-a-like said with a smile.

Suigetsu looked ready to laugh; _This guy can't even smile right._

The pink haired girl glared at the boy; and Youki noticed why the Mist Nin was holding in a laugh, the boy's smile was just a smile, there was not emotion attached to it. False; completely false.

"I'm Youki," The Seer didn't see the harm in introductions; "And that is, as I am sure you all know, Suigetsu,"

"I am Sai," The look-a-like said and pointed to the pink haired girl; "That is Sakura and that," He pointed to the blonde; "Is Naruto,"

"What has he done?" She glanced over at him, and he shrugged.

"Aside form taking what is mine?" Suigetsu looked at Sakura and grinned; "You have heard of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen?"

"Yea, Zazuba was one of them," Naruto answered.

"The swords are inherited. Passed down from generation to generation, if you will," He grinned; "As Youki said, I'm entitled to this sword," He gestured to it, but Sakura moved in between him and the sword that was meant to be his.

"That's how you plan to get them to join you… Because you're one of…" Sakura began, thinking she figured his plan out; but the Mist Nin shook his head.

"Kisame is also one, and since I haven't officially been announced as one it won't count. But they know _of_ me," He stated to them.

Naruto looked at Sakura, who moved out of the Mist Nin's way.

"We'll need to attack soon,"

"The old lady wants to wait until tomorrow," Naruto told him.

"Sending the spies in first," Youki said thoughtfully, still sitting on the floor and looking up at the four.

"To see how we can approach it," Sai added.

Suigetsu nodded; "I'll be going with you,"

"What?!" Sakura looked at him, as if he was insane.

"He'll need to, to get some of them to join us," Sai told her.

"He could be a double agent,"

"Not while Youki is here," Suigetsu said firmly; "She won't betray you, so I won't either,"

"Wait…" Naruto looked back and forth to Youki and Suigetsu; "You two…" The Mist Nin felt a smirk coming on to his face; "Are together?"

Suigetsu began to laugh, and Youki just smiled.

"Wait… You're two are… Dating?" Sakura looked at them in surprise.

"Not exactly," Youki replied and Suigetsu looked at her, startled; "We're still on a mission," She reminded him, and he grinned.

"So, once this is finished…" Suigetsu ignored the others for the moment.

"Once it's finished," She told him, unwilling to add 'if we are still alive'.

"What about Sasuke…?" Sakura interrupted them.

"He's hell bent on revenge," Suigetsu told her, only to see the Seer shake her head; "What?"

"He's also smart; he's not likely to fall to Madara's lies. He believes that certain leaders are pulling the strings. But he won't harm the people of this village," Youki informed them.

"Has he…?" Naruto began to ask.

"Tch, he's a Leaf," Suigetsu said in distain.

"Which means?" Sai asked.

"He's soft,"

The dark haired Nin looked curious, but before he could ask any further questions Naruto butted in.

"So, no killing?" Sakura checked.

"He's killed a few," Suigetsu cleared up any confusion; "Orochimaru, Itachi and a ninja from the Cloud Village. Aside from them, no,"

The two Leaf Nin's breathed a sigh of relief at hearing that; both hoping that maybe Sasuke will come back.

He also knows that Karin and Juugo will follow him, not Madara," Youki added.

"Which is good news for us," The Mist Nin said with a nod.

The dark haired Seer stretched and looked at the three Leaf ninja's;" Look, can we continue this else where?"

"Sure," Naruto smiled; "We'll be round the corner at the ramen shop!"

Sakura sighed and they left to wait for the two.

Standing up, she moved to the bathroom to splash water on her face.

"Why not go with them?" She asked as she dried her face.

The white haired Mist Nin smirked; "She reminds me of Karin,"

"I guess… But she's more controlled," She pointed out.

"You would have been part of this," Suigetsu gestured, not meaning the room, but the village.

"You'd still be training to become one of the Swordsmen,"

"Ha, wouldn't change a thing,"

"Guess not. Come on," She put her shoes on and they left to find the ramen café, and found Naruto was already through his third bowl; although Sai and Sakura were still eating their first bowl.

The two just looked at him in surprise, most people got full after the first bowl… But they did have to consider that he was the host to the nine tailed beast.

They sat down and ordered.

"So, what are his other team mates like?" Naruto asked, in-between slurping the noodles of his ramen.

"Karin is a red haired wench…" Suigetsu began, but Youki corrected him.

"She can also detect chakra,"

"Juugo has to personalities,"

"He's the origin of the Cursed Seal,"

"Quiet one moment, then promises to kill you the next," Then he remembered something; "Of course he's also friends with the birds,"

The three Leaf Ninja's stared at him, completely surprised.

"Friends with birds?" Sai repeated.

Youki nodded, as their bowls were put down and they began to eat.

"Wait, first?" Sakura realized what they had been told.

"Yes. Orochimaru had managed to catch Juugo… After that… Well, you have all these people with the Curse Mark," Suigetsu said with a shrug.

"Figures," Naruto said.

"Orochimaru wasn't clever enough to create his own mark… Or powerful enough; so he took it from some else," Sai stated; "We'll need to head out soon," He said to Suigetsu, who nodded.

"Wait… You're going too?" Naruto looked at the dark haired Nin.

"I was requested to go along, plus I can keep an eye on him," He gestured to the Mist Nin, who finished his bowl of ramen.

"When?" Youki asked.

"Afternoon,"

Suigetu and Sai joined the other spies and scouts who were getting ready to set out while Naruto, Sakura and Youki stayed at the café, to figure out what to do when they had to go in.

"Hopefully some will join us," Sai commented, attempting to make some conversation as they moved towards the Mist village.

Unusually for Suigetsu, he said nothing; of course Sai wouldn't have known how unusual it was. The Mist Nin, or former Mist Nin, was focused on this mission and he knew that while he could gain extra help for the Leaf Village, he wasn't sure exactly how much help he would gain. All of the people of the Mist knew what would happen to go against their leader; to be cast out of the village and go into exile, or to be killed. To many of the Mist people, the former was worse than the latter.

However Zazuba went into exile; but of course he was a wanted man, but he avoided death, just barely; only to die on a mission. But that was how many of the Mist Ninja's died; it was rarely a peaceful death, never old age; it was always a battle that would finish them.

_I am the Demon_. The white haired swordsman told himself; knowing that he had to prove to the others that he was who he said he was.

An older man, brown hair and brown eyes came upon them, ready to fight, only to pause when he saw Suigetsu; "You're… The Demon,"

Hearing those words, Suigetsu grinned; "Yea, I am,"

"Why are you here?"

Sai remained tense, although he wasn't posed to attack; he didn't know how the Mist would react to one of there own going against their leader.

"To gain soldiers to fight with the Village of the Hidden Leaf,"

"To go against…?"

"Yea,"

The brown haired man smirked; "There are some of us who will follow. Other's will want a life that is easy for them," He snorted; "Come," He gestured for them both to follow him.

The two did, but they were careful, after all it could easily be a trick to trap them.

Back in the Village of the Hidden Leafs, Sakura, Naruto and Youki were preparing for the up coming battle.

"Do you think Sasuke will…" Sakura started, looking at the dark haired Seer.

"I can't promise anything… He's a wild card at the moment," Youki told her honestly. Her visions weren't helping her either, all she was getting was blood and leaves and for a moment a speck of something… but she couldn't say for certain what it was.

"Maybe this will prove to him that the village wants him back,"

"Perhaps. He might very well fight against Madara, but even so, he might not come back to the village,"

"You think so?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"There's nothing here for him any more,"

"There's us," Naruto said, walking over to them.

Youki shook her head; "I mean, he's lived most of his life for revenge, do you really think that he'll suddenly manage to go back to this village and be a _normal _ninja?"

"He'll adapt,"

"Will the village accept him after what he's done?"

"We can help him!" He exclaimed.

The Seer became silent; they couldn't tell anything until the battle was over. If they were still alive that is.

Kiba came up to them and gestured for them to come with him.

As they walked, Youki noticed the vast number of ninja's; and they weren't all Leaf either; a good number of them were from the Sand.

While the Seer was ready, she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like after the battle; who would live or die, would they actually win?

"Youki?" Sakura said, and she blinked out of her thought process.

"Yes?"

"You ready?"

She nodded. She also knew that this battle needed to happen, and that they would win, regardless of the cost.

As they walked closer, they all spread out; meeting up with other ninja's, some from the Sand and others from the Mist.

"Sakura," A male voice said, and the pink haired Nin turned to see Sai walking towards them.

"Where's…"

"Getting everyone ready," Sai told them; "He's good at motivating them,"

"Tch, I know what they want to hear," Youki knew that voice rather well; she turned to see the familiar white hair and violet eyes looking at her.

"Suigetsu," She said with a small smile; glad to see that he was all right.

He smirked as he walked up to them; "They're ready,"

"All right," Sakura nodded, and they began to walk up to the village.

A Sentary waved his hand at a bush, and Suigetsu calmly walked towards him.

"This side is safe," He told the Swordsman; "The other side… Not so much,"

"Heh, we get in easily, that's all that matters," Suigetsu told him.

The Leaf and Sand ninja's moved quickly, spreading out around the village to find the Akatsuki waiting for them in the centre of the village.


	9. Chapter 9

The Akatsuki were waiting for them, and wearing his usual orange spiral mask was Madara, next to him was Kisame and Zetsu; along with other ninja's from the Village of Rain and Mist; as well as Sasuke, Karin and Juugo.

"Heh," Madara said, casting his eye over them; "Have you come to defeat me?"

"Hell yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, glaring at the man; "And we'll beat your ass too!"

"I highly doubt that," The immortal Uchiha spoke confidently; "Just because you have got two trai…"

"They never mattered;" Sasuke interrupted, barely glancing at the former Mist Nin and the Seer; "They'll be the first to go,"

Suigetsu grinned; "Keep dreaming,"

"That brat," Kisame looked at the younger Mist Nin hungrily; "Is _mine_,"

Without another word, the older swordsman attacked; which was the signal for the battle to begin.

Karin and Juugo made a bee-line for Youki, who tensed up; certain that she could take out Karin; but Juugo was another matter all together. However when they came upon her, they never fought; instead Juugo just shook his head;

"Wait,"

Karin nodded, and quickly moved out of the other ninja's way of fighting.

"Sasuke won't go this far," Juugo told her.

"It's the finale battle, how is it…" Youki began.

"He wants revenge, not a massacre," Karin pointed out.

"And he did say we weren't part of Akatsuki, we're just using them," Juugo added.

"Sasuke is just using them… And his risk has come at a price," Youki told them; moving quickly to stab a Rain ninja with her kunai knife.

The three looked to see Sasuke fighting everyone; as was his way he knocked them out, but never killed them. Without warning he back flipped and began attacking Madara, along with Naruto and Sakura.

Youki moved away from them, focusing on fighting the Rain ninja's, and stopping them from interrupting the fight between the two swordsmen.

"Aw, how sweet," Kisame mocked the younger Mist Nin, as he looked at Youki fighting the Rain Ninja's who were trying to disrupt the fight; "Can't fight on your own any more? Is this what happened when Orochimaru kept you as his lab rat?"

Suigetsu said nothing, but made to strike him again; only for Kisame to parry his blow and push him back; then the blue skinned made to hit Youki instead. With Suigetsu moving quickly to shield her; however instead of his sword blocking it; he pushed her out of the way and became water. The Seer distracted Kisame as Suigetsu quickly solidified himself and took out a few of the Rain ninja's that disturbed the fight, again.

"She just happens to be better looking!" He snapped back, managing to cut into his arm.

Not that the silver haired ninja was uninjured, his leg was bleeding and he had many scraps across the side of his neck and arms.

The Seer tried to keep the fight as equal as possible for her friend; however there were some that always got pasted her; however either Suigetsu or Kisame would take them out. And the older Mist Nin had no qualms about whose side the ninja's were on either. There were times when she underestimated these ninja's; not even her ability to foresee the future could help her; things happened faster than she could foresee.

She was lucky that Sai was able to cover her, stopping any ninja's trying to stab her when her back was turned. The two Leaf ninja's were back to back, making sure that they didn't have a weak spot and they dealt with the other ninja's that were attacking.

"Aacchhh," Suigetsu cried out and his sword landed in-between Youki and another Mist Nin who was trying to punch her.

Using her enemy's hesitation she stabbed him in the stomach, and glanced over at the two swordsmen.

"Stupid brat," Kisame grunted at him, enjoying the fact that he had disarmed him opponent; "You think having Zazuba's sword would make you one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen…" There was blood dripping down the side of his face, his right arm had a deep cut and also his chest had a fairly big wound as well; "You'd never have made it as one!" Raising his sword he prepared to deal Suigetsu the fatal blow.

"Maybe I don't need a sword," Suigetsu smirked, his face partly covered in blood, sweat and dirt as he looked up at Kisame from the ground.

"Wha…" The elder Mist Nin looked confused; but before he could finish Suigetsu dissolved into water and wrapped his form around the larger Nin, going towards the neck before he partially solidified himself.

"This is what they used to do… You'd remember this!" Suigetsu snarled; his shark-like teeth prominent as he went for the jugular of Kisame's neck; tearing through the artery like it was just over cooked meat.

Youki looked on, entrance by what was happening. She'd never seen anyone do that; although it was a survival instinct, she never fully appreciated that was what those teeth could be used for.

Kisame fell to the ground, eyes wide open in shock, his mouth moving but unable to make a noise aside from the gurgle of blood, as Suigetsu spat out the meat that he had managed to tear out. He grabbed his flask and rinsed his mouth out, spitting it over the dying swordsman.

"Impressive," Sai commented, having watched sections of the battle unfold as he fought the other ninjas.

The dark haired Seer remained silent though, although she too was impressed by it, it also shocked her. But right now they were in the middle of a battle, she had to focus on that; and deal with what happened just then later. If she had a later or if any of them did.

Suigetsu picked up his sword and began slicing the Rain ninjas through like they were butter. She was fighting off one ninja, when a Mist came from behind and stabbed her with his short sword, smirking sadistically at her as he moved the blade up her thigh when his head was cut cleanly off.

Suigetsu, blood spattered from the killing he had caused; had already moved onto the next ninja who got in his way; while the Hyuga Princess had managed to get through all the fights to help heal her.

"It's deep…" Hinata commented, looking slightly worried as she started to heal it; "It's not…"

Youki gingerly put her weight on the leg, wincing slightly, but she knew it was bearable.

"We need to win this," She told the raven haired girl, and moved out of sight to help Sai with a few Rain ninja's.

Throughout the battle, the most prominent one hard barely begun, since it was one of the most powerful ninja's that was being faced.

"You'd betray your own family, eh?" Madara asked, as he was pushed back from killing off Rock Lee.

"You betrayed them…. By not _listening!_" Sasuke yelled at him.

"You're back?" Naruto looked at his old friend, who smirked at the blonde and nodded.

"Let's finish this bastard off,"

The remained Rain and Mist ninjas managed to create a barrier, so that the other outsiders could interrupt the finale battle.

"Youki!" Juugo cried out, and she turned to see him fighting off Rain and Mist nin to get to her; "You're…"

"It's been healed… I can still fight," She calmed him, punching one ninja and kicking another.

"Karin was taken by the medics," Juugo told her, looking worried.

The Seer said nothing, just remembering the times that Suigetsu said that the red haired girl couldn't fight.

"Is…"

He shook his head, stabbing another Rain Nin, as Youki used a fire jutsu on some others.

"I didn't see, all I know is that she was taken away by the Leaf ninja's,"

Youki looked at him; "She'll be all right, its Karin…" She shrugged, and once more used some fire jutsu on another ninja, as Sai sliced another and Juugo punched a Mist Nin.

The three of them split up, Youki finding herself being drawn towards Suigetsu, more by accident than anything else; which was good, since they did know how the other fought and could easily balance each other's weaker points. She noticed that he had gained more wounds, but she wasn't concerned with them; with his gift, he could easily recover from them.

They didn't talk, covering each other's backs as they fought, until finally the last ninja was on the ground.

They remained tense, looking around just in case; but Suigetsu pointed to where the most important battle was.

Youki saw the orange spiral mask on the ground, caked in blood, the Akatsuki cloaked body lay on the ground beside it, dead.

Sasuke was looking around, carefully scanning the area; Youki noticed that his eyes appeared to have changed… Though she couldn't say exactly why, and then he looked right at her and she saw the extent of how badly injured he was. His right hand was gripped on his left elbow… Where the Uchiha's lower arm had been ripped off during the battle.

Suigetsu gasped at seeing Sasuke that badly wounded. He never thought that the Uchiha would be mauled like that… with all the confidence and finesse that Sasuke had fought with when they were part of Team Snake and Hawk…. To see him as he was right there looking like that was… Scary.

Youki's attention was turned to the pink haired girl; Sakura, who was limping, and had both her hands on her stomach to stem the bleeding. The she saw the blonde haired Kyuubi, who was on the ground, with blood coming out of his mouth and his side.

The medics moved quickly, a small number crowding around each of the three ninja's. All of them were taken by stretcher to be examined and get something done right away to stem all the blood flow.

The swordsman touched her shoulder; "We'd better get out of here… We'll get in the way,"

Nodding, they moved away from the battle; although they had to carefully avoid all the dead bodies around them. The dark haired boy came up to them, Youki examined him carefully; or as much as she could when she was tired from all that fighting.

"Sai?" She noticed that her leg was also beginning to ache.

"Naruto…." He began.

"At the rate those medics…" Suigetsu began to mutter.

"The medics are already dealing with him. Come with us, we're heading out of here… We'll be getting in the way," She looked at the white haired Mist Nin, who just shrugged and lead the way.

Neither of them had noticed that although Sai appeared to have minor injuries, he had a big wound on his back, which was dripping down his leg; all they were focused on was resting.

A woman with long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes was the first one to notice Sai's injury. She managed to navigate him to going towards one of the medics to have it checked out; all the while sending glares at the two displaced ninja's.

Suigetsu sat down, out of the way and drank both flasks of water, and the spare one's that they had been given; not focusing on what was going on around him. The fact that the dead were all being piled up; although into different piles for each village.

Youki limped towards him, having gotten her leg looked at, now it was complete with stitches and a bandage; and getting her other injures seen to.

"Hey,"

Looking up he saw her and smiled, having managed to find a stream near by to fill up his flasks; luckily the battle hadn't contaminated the water and he could drink as much as he needed, and wash his face.

"How's the leg?"

"It will heal fine. Just need to keep it clean," She informed him as he stood up and stretched; "Have you seen Karin?"

"The bitch got injured?"

"Juugo told me during the fight," She told him, her grey eyes scanning the area, trying to see if she could pick the red haired girl out; instead she found Juugo, being attended by Hinata.

The two moved towards the blonde haired man, and saw his chest wound. Suigetsu glanced at it, but he knew it wasn't looking good. The wound wasn't just deep, there appeared to be a lot of tissue taken out of it as well.

"He need to rest," The raven haired girl told them, and the two nodded.

"Karin? Sasuke?" Juugo said drowsily, as he laid on the make shift futon.

The white haired swordsman looked at Youki who spoke; "We haven't seen them yet, rest, and we'll see you later,"

With her saying that, Juugo closed his eyes and fell asleep.

"Hinata?" Youki questioned the girl quietly.

The raven haired girl gestured for them to move away from the sleeping Juugo.

"Sasuke should be fine,"

"Should?" Suigetsu raised an eyebrow.

"He'll not be as he was… We couldn't fix his arm…" Hinata winced at the memory.

"And Karin?" Youki asked gently.

"She… Wasn't so lucky,"

"What?" Suigetsu looked at her, unable to believe exactly what this girl was telling them.

"She was injured… And she let some of our wounded ninjas take her chakra to heal… It was too much for her own body to cope with,"

"Why didn't…"

"Juugo needs to heal," Youki interrupted him, knowing that Hinata was just as tired as the rest of them, only she had to keep going.

"We won't know the full extent of the… Wounded, until later," Hinata informed them and added; "If you're able to, it would be best to go back to the village,"

The Seer nodded, and the two left the raven haired Hyuga Princess to tend to the other's.

"We can let you rest," Suigetsu offered as they moved through the forest.

"Let's just go. We'll be in the way… And it will be easier to rest back home," She told him, not noticing what she said.

Suigetsu on the other hand picked up on it. _Home?_ He thought to himself; _I guess it is for her. _

They noticed the medic Nin's moving between the two villages, with supplies in the arms.

It wasn't long after they left that they had to stop. The battle had taken a lot out of Suigetsu, although he was also stopping because of Youki; but she didn't need to know that.

"I never thought she'd die," He said to her softly, leaning against a rock.

"Really?" The Seer raised an eyebrow, surprised.

"Heh, I never thought she'd be in an actual battle like this,"

"But we're here… Alive," Youki said thoughtfully.

"Humm,"

"And you defeated Kisame,"

He grinned; "Had a bit of help,"

She shook her head; "I thought…"

"I would lose?" He guessed, still a smirk on his face, but she never replied.

"You defeated him without your sword,"

The smirk was off, he forgot about everyone else being around him. In that fight there was just him and Kisame. Fighting to the death; he would have used anything he had to defeat that shark.

"The people from the Mist use what ever they can," He gestured to his sharp teeth; "Including these's. We're not born with them, some people get them, and some don't,"

"It was smart," She told him; "And you'd do it again it you needed to,"

"Tch, I've never actually done it before," He rubbed his neck, and she looked at him surprised; "I had no need to, Being able to turn to water worked pretty well, I never really had to fight against any other Mist ninja's,"

"You're alive, that's all that matters," Youki said, and smiled; "And you have his sword,"

"Yea, so, let's go. Bet we can get there soon,"

The two continued to walk, at a slower pace than before, given that he was more aware of her wounded leg now and that there wasn't a rush to get there.

Over time, Youki felt an ache coming to her leg; but she choose to ignore it; with the village insight, she didn't want to stop. However, she wound up limping, and Suigetsu noticed.

"You know we can rest,"

"I'm all right," She told him, but her wound had begun to throb, and every time she thought of sitting down and resting, it made the sensation worse.

Rolling his eyes he slipped his arm under her arm, so he was holding her; "You don't have to put so much weight on it. Should help it ease off a bit,"

"It's not that far…" She began, but he forced her forward.

"Exactly, and you don't want to damage you're leg any more than it has been," He pointed out, causing her to become quiet.

Once they entered the village, a few of the villagers came forward to see the two. No questions were asked, the people were just curious rather than nosey, they were old enough to know how the medics work, but the two could plainly see the worry in their eyes.

As they reached there flat, Suigetsu opened the door, and once the two entered it they sat down on the sofa, closed their eyes; and drifted into a peaceful slumber.


	10. Chapter 10

Late in the afternoon the next day the white haired swordsman finally woke up from his place on the sofa. Turning he saw Youki resting her head on the arm of the sofa, her wounded leg a bit further out.

_Must have__ been sore. _He thought as he looked over; deciding that he should get up.

Standing, he stretched and looked out of the window; the view wasn't overly nice, but he wasn't fussy. See anything that was actually outside was nice to him. After all he had been stuck in a tank full of water for some time before all this, and even then he never fully appreciated the views that had been on offer.

However, he needed to get food. The apartment had none… Or at least nothing that would really keep them full.

As he walked down the street towards a shop, he spotted a girl with raven hair… Hinata Hyuuga; she was walking up the way and she looked exhausted. However once she caught sight of him, she waved shyly.

"Suigetsu," She greeted him, and he nodded in reply; "Is Youki all right?"

_This is what a friend is. _He realised; "Right now she's sleeping,"

"Her leg?"

"It's sore,"

_A friend is someone who's concerned about another. Even after all this time of Youki not being in the village…She still worries about her._ He thought to himself.

"What about you? No one had…" The Hyuuga Princess blushed, realising that she never checked any of his wounds the day before.

"I'm fine," He told her; surprised by her concern; _Maybe Hinata isn't just Youki's friend now… Maybe… _"How are the others?"

She looked away from him; "Juugo had to stay behind, he isn't strong enough to move yet,"

"Rest," He told her, wanting to know more; but also knowing that during a war the healers won't know everything that is going on around them.

She nodded and waved goodbye to him as she made her way back home; while he carried on to get some food.

As he entered the small store, he noted that there was hardly a lot left on the shelves.

"A lot of supplies were…" An old man began to tell him.

"Yea, I know," Suigetsu interrupted, picking up some easy to cook ramen, paying and then heading back to the apartment.

***

Youki had woken up to find that she was alone; and in a strange place. Though once her mind her fully woken she remembered where she was. She never really did it when she was with Team Hawk, probably due to her travelling with them all the time, the fact that they were usually outside, and that she was normally weary due to Karin being around.

Standing up, and gingerly putting weight on her wounded leg, she made her way to the bathroom.

Carefully she took off the bandage on her leg, brought out some ointment and began to clean the wound, wincing as she did so. When she heard the door open, she put the ointment down with relief, and carefully moves to see if it was Suigetsu.

"Where have…?"

The white haired swordsman turned to look at her; carefully looking at the stitched wound and how she was limping.

"Sore?" He asked her.

"It's… Stiff," She smiled, and he grinned; "Aside from that the ointment has made it a bit sore,"

They became silent for a moment, before Suigetsu commented;

"We're free,"

She smiled as she fixed the bandage back into place; "Yea, we are," She moved towards him; "So now what?"

They both knew it would take a while for the Leaf Village to get back on its feet again, and then the Mist Village also needed a new leader.

He had the two swords that he had been after, even if he wanted to get the other's he would have to wait until everything calmed down first, all the villages would be on high alert, just in case something were to happen.

"Stay here," He told her, and she just stared at him.

"But…" Youki began, stunned.

"I only wanted these two swords," He said and grinned; "Karin was wrong,"

Once again silence fell upon them, this time wondering who survived and who hadn't, or wouldn't.

"Once the Hokage isn't too focused we can go see her, right?" He asked her.

"Once she's helped as much as she can. She's a very good healer, from what I heard," Youki informed him, unable to fully believe that he wanted to stay in the Leaf Village.

Hadn't he already said that the ninja's of this village were 'soft'? The Seer smiled, she certainly hadn't seen that one coming.

***

A year had not yet passed and Konoha was almost finished rebuilding.

Sakura had healed up rather well, her left leg had been injured and caused her to limp for a good few months, but now no one could tell that she had problems at all with her injured leg. He wound on her stomach had healed well too, although she would always have a large scar from her right bottom ribs to her left hip bone.

Sai also was back to full health, he too had a big scar on his back, but it healed up and he had to be forced to take it easy for a few months to let the wound fully heal; luckily a distraction was Ino trying to help him improve socialising with other people. He hadn't gotten any better at it, but everyone could see that he was genuinely trying.

Youki had a scar on her thigh, and a few minor scars all over; though Suigetsu had to make sure that she didn't overdo anything or move around too much for the first month that the thigh would was healing.

Juugo didn't fair that well, although he had a chest wound, because of all the other small wounds it was hard to treat him. They learned that he had been cut by a few poisoned blades as well; which didn't help with the healing process. In fact it hindered it; although Juugo lasted almost two months; his body gave up the fight.

Naruto was one of the worst injured, losing his left ear, part of his right hand and having a good load of minor wounds as well. His stay in hospital was extended, due to his ear kept on getting infected, since he could never manage to clean it himself; and he also needed to heal mentally as well. Everything he had seen, and heard would have taken there toll on his mind; although no one was sure what Madara could have said to the three young nin; none of them have repeated it.

Sasuke, having gained the eyes of Madara; had deep scars all over as well; he had also collapsed when the medics got to him due to the loss of blood he lost with his arm wound. However, unlike the others; Sasuke disappeared after Juugo's death.

Rumours were abound over what happened to the last Uchiha. Some say that he has become the leader of the Mist Village. Other's say that he became insane after Madara's eyes were implanted.

To a lot of people Sasuke was trouble. They blamed him for the destruction of the village; although when they say that in the open, there was always someone else who would stand up for him; of course whether the Uchiha would care what anyone says about him remains to be seen.

Lady Tsunade however, cared what happed to the Uchiha. Even if he didn't want to come back to his village, she wanted to know that he was all right and that he would be safe in another village; she just wanted the rumours to end.

The grey eyed Seer stood near the woodland area, waiting on her partner to return so that they could begin their mission as Leaf Ninja's.

_How funny. I'm back home…_ She thought to herself, spotting the white haired swordsman, who grinned at her; and they left the village.

"You know, it's almost like it used to be," Youki commented.

"Almost… You're going to start bitchin' about me stopping?" Suigetsu teased.

She just laughed; "I don't think I can do Karin justice,"

They looked at each other; remembering the two comrades who had fallen in battle. They were both surprised that Juugo died after fighting for so long; although Hinata, who had been with the blonde ever since he was injured, appeared to have taken it worse than they did. She watched him slip away from her; even as she tried to fight back.

"How is Hinata?" Suigetsu asked as they walked.

"She's fine, I think. Worried about another family gathering though,"

"How big is her family?"

"Um… Pretty big. They are a powerful clan anyway, and with her being heir…"

Suigetsu just shook his head; "Let's just focus on Sasuke,"

"Well, our leads have said that he was spotted around the Mist Village and the Rain Village," She informed him.

"Well, let's go to the closest one first," He told her as they began to make their way towards the Mist, but this time there was no sense of urgency; they needed to let the village know what was Sasuke up to.

They needed to make sure the past was behind them, and that there wasn't going to be another war like that again. They needed to know that the Uchiha was ok.

Regardless, the two who were on the mission were in no rush, there were no threats coming there way. They were just going to take their time over it.

"Why did you pack so much sweet food?" Youki asked, and the white haired swordsman laughed.

"After being in a water tank, I got a sweet tooth…" He paused, then grinned; "I don't think I told you how Sasuke met me…."

The two began to walk, Youki listened to how the former Mist nin was recruited into Sasuke's first team, Snake, and that the Uchiha was willing to let Suigetsu go out to find his Senpai's sword; and along the way learned a few new things about him.

***

And that is it, Shades of Grey is complete. I would like to thank everyone for reading this story; to the people who reviewed and those who haven't, also those who have added this story to there faves; thanks very much for reading.


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